READING OF THE DAY First reading from the First Book of Kings 1 Kgs 19:4-8
Elijah went a day’s journey into the desert, until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it. He prayed for death saying: “This is enough, O LORD! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree, but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat. Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake and a jug of water. After he ate and drank, he lay down again, but the angel of the LORD came back a second time, touched him, and ordered, “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!” He got up, ate, and drank; then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb. PSALM 33 (34)
I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.
I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.
O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.
Second reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians Eph 4:30—5:2
Brothers and sisters: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.
So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY From the Gospel according to John Jn 6:41-51
The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven, ” and they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER Before Jesus’ invitation to nourish ourselves of his Body and of his Blood, we might feel the need to dispute and to resist, as did those listeners whom today’s Gospel spoke of. This happens when we struggle to model our existence after that of Jesus, to act according to his criteria. By nourishing ourselves of this food we can enter into full harmony with Christ, with his sentiments, with his behaviour. This is so important: to go to Mass and partake in Communion, because receiving Communion is receiving this living Christ, who transforms us within and prepares us for heaven. (Angelus, 19 August 2018)
FAUSTI - Speaking of flesh and blood, one alludes to the cross, where Jesus will give his Body and shed his Blood. It is precisely his humanity that gives man that of which everything is a sign: God himself as a gift of himself. Through it we enter into communion with the Son of God who became the Son of man. Every other bread is a symbol of this, which is reality. That is why we take every crumb of bread, every reality - however small it may be - as a sign of the Father's love, we give thanks to Him and we share with our brothers and sisters, circulating the life of the Son in all things and for all. The Eucharist is truly salvation for us and for the whole world. In fact, it makes us children in the Son, in communion with the Father, with our brothers and sisters, and with all creation. What is not the object of the Eucharist is dead and infected with death. This ending of the dialogue allows us to enter into the mystery of that surplus of bread that is now present in every fragment of creation: it is God Himself who gives us to live of Him, of His love. It is worth repeating: whoever gives something, in reality gives himself. In fact, every gift implies the gift of oneself. In the gift of the flesh and blood of the Son, the gift of God is revealed and fulfilled. Let us welcome Him as our Father and ourselves as children. And we rejoice in this by saying: "Amen".
Creation, exodus and covenant find their fullness in the Eucharist. It is the feast of the seventh day, the freedom of the children, the marriage between Creator and creature, the rest of the one in the other. Before a God who gives Himself to us - how can He not give Himself if H'Is love? there's nothing but amazement and endless joy. Jesus gives His flesh and blood as food and drink of the new exodus. His humanity, totally offered to us, makes visible that invisible God. Which is completely and only love: in Him the new and definitive covenant between heaven and earth is celebrated. The Church eats and drinks of Him, true bread that assimilates us to Him and makes us capable of loving . We let's share the same love by which we're loved . Let us thus participate in the life of the Trinity, eternal love between Father and Son that spreads to all creatures, so that God may be All in all.
E. RONCHI - I am the living bread come down from heaven. The power of Jesus' language, His mystery and His story expressed not through reasoning but through images: bread, living, descent, heaven. Four words and four metaphors, each of them generative, being rich in movement, experience, flavor and horizons. They do not explain the mystery, but they make it vibrate in your life, a joyful mystery to be enjoyed and savored. The bread of which they speak is not that fistful of water and flour passed through the millstone and the fire, it contains much more: it is the symbol of all that is good for you and keeps you alive. The Jews began to murmur against Jesus. But how? You pretend to be the bread that rained down from heaven? But you came like everyone else from your mother and father. Do you want to change our lives? And doing what bread does with our bodies, hiding and disappearing into the depths, and making no noise. No, the almighty God should do much more: powerful, definitive, evident, solar miracles. But God does not make a spectacle. Basically, it is the same criticism that we also murmur: what claim does this Man of two thousand years ago have on my life? Does He really think He can make us live better? Don't murmur among yourselves. Don't waste words discussing God, you can do better than that: dive into His mystery. Bread that descends from heaven. Note: He descends, by a thousand ways, in a hundred ways, like bread in the body; He descends to me, now, in this moment, and continually. I can choose not to take him as food, I can even relegate to the repertoire of fantasies, but He descends untiringly, enveloping me with good forces. I am immersed in Him and He is immersed in me, nourishing my most beautiful part. Do not murmur, eat. Today's Gospel passage is structured around the verb to eat. A gesture so simple and daily, yet so vital and powerful, that Jesus chose it as a symbol of the encounter with God; He told the advanced frontier of the Kingdom of Heaven with the parables of the banquet, of conviviality. The Bread that descends from heaven is the self-presentation of God as a vital matter for man. The bread you eat makes you live, and so you live by God and eat His Life, dream His dreams, prefer those He preferred. Bites of heaven. A question arises of what am I feeding my soul and thoughts ? Am I eating generosity, beauty, depth? Or am I feeding on selfishness, intolerance, short-sightedness of spirit, senselessness of living, fears? If we welcome degraded thoughts, they make us like them. If we welcome thoughts of Gospel and beauty, these will transform us into custodians of beauty and tenderness, the bread that will save the world.
READING OF THE DAY
RispondiEliminaFirst reading from the First Book of Kings
1 Kgs 19:4-8
Elijah went a day’s journey into the desert,
until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it.
He prayed for death saying:
“This is enough, O LORD!
Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree,
but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat.
Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake
and a jug of water.
After he ate and drank, he lay down again,
but the angel of the LORD came back a second time,
touched him, and ordered,
“Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!”
He got up, ate, and drank;
then strengthened by that food,
he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.
PSALM 33 (34)
I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.
I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.
O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.
Second reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians
Eph 4:30—5:2
Brothers and sisters:
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,
with which you were sealed for the day of redemption.
All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling
must be removed from you, along with all malice.
And be kind to one another, compassionate,
forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.
So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love,
as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us
as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
RispondiEliminaFrom the Gospel according to John
Jn 6:41-51
The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said,
“I am the bread that came down from heaven, ”
and they said,
“Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?
Do we not know his father and mother?
Then how can he say,
‘I have come down from heaven’?”
Jesus answered and said to them,
“Stop murmuring among yourselves.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,
and I will raise him on the last day.
It is written in the prophets:
They shall all be taught by God.
Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God;
he has seen the Father.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven
so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
Before Jesus’ invitation to nourish ourselves of his Body and of his Blood, we might feel the need to dispute and to resist, as did those listeners whom today’s Gospel spoke of. This happens when we struggle to model our existence after that of Jesus, to act according to his criteria. By nourishing ourselves of this food we can enter into full harmony with Christ, with his sentiments, with his behaviour. This is so important: to go to Mass and partake in Communion, because receiving Communion is receiving this living Christ, who transforms us within and prepares us for heaven. (Angelus, 19 August 2018)
FAUSTI - Speaking of flesh and blood, one alludes to the cross, where Jesus will give his Body and shed his Blood.
RispondiEliminaIt is precisely his humanity that gives man that of which everything is a sign: God himself as a gift of himself.
Through it we enter into communion with the Son of God who became the Son of man.
Every other bread is a symbol of this, which is reality.
That is why we take every crumb of bread,
every reality - however small it may be - as a sign of the Father's love, we give thanks to Him and we share with our brothers and sisters, circulating the life of the Son in all things and for all.
The Eucharist is truly salvation for us and for the whole world. In fact, it makes us children in the Son, in communion with the Father, with our brothers and sisters, and with all creation.
What is not the object of the Eucharist is dead and infected with death.
This ending of the dialogue allows us to enter into the mystery of that surplus of bread that is now present in every fragment of creation: it is God Himself who gives us to live of Him, of His love.
It is worth repeating: whoever gives something, in reality gives himself.
In fact, every gift implies the gift of oneself.
In the gift of the flesh and blood of the Son, the gift of God is revealed and fulfilled.
Let us welcome Him as our Father and ourselves as children. And we rejoice in this by saying: "Amen".
Creation, exodus and covenant find their fullness in the Eucharist. It is the feast of the seventh day, the freedom of the children, the marriage between Creator and creature, the rest of the one in the other.
Before a God who gives Himself to us - how can He not give Himself if H'Is love? there's nothing but amazement and endless joy.
Jesus gives His flesh and blood as food and drink of the new exodus.
His humanity, totally offered to us, makes visible that invisible God.
Which is completely and only love: in Him the new and definitive covenant between heaven and earth is celebrated.
The Church eats and drinks of Him, true bread that assimilates us to Him and makes us capable of loving .
We let's share the same love by which we're loved . Let us thus participate in the life of the Trinity,
eternal love between Father and Son
that spreads to all creatures,
so that God may be All in all.
E. RONCHI - I am the living bread come down from heaven. The power of Jesus' language, His mystery and His story expressed not through reasoning but through images: bread, living, descent, heaven. Four words and four metaphors, each of them generative, being rich in movement, experience, flavor and horizons. They do not explain the mystery, but they make it vibrate in your life, a joyful mystery to be enjoyed and savored. The bread of which they speak is not that fistful of water and flour passed through the millstone and the fire, it contains much more: it is the symbol of all that is good for you and keeps you alive.
RispondiEliminaThe Jews began to murmur against Jesus. But how? You pretend to be the bread that rained down from heaven? But you came like everyone else from your mother and father. Do you want to change our lives? And doing what bread does with our bodies, hiding and disappearing into the depths, and making no noise. No, the almighty God should do much more: powerful, definitive, evident, solar miracles. But God does not make a spectacle. Basically, it is the same criticism that we also murmur: what claim does this Man of two thousand years ago have on my life? Does He really think He can make us live better?
Don't murmur among yourselves. Don't waste words discussing God, you can do better than that: dive into His mystery. Bread that descends from heaven. Note: He descends, by a thousand ways, in a hundred ways, like bread in the body; He descends to me, now, in this moment, and continually. I can choose not to take him as food, I can even relegate to the repertoire of fantasies, but He descends untiringly, enveloping me with good forces. I am immersed in Him and He is immersed in me, nourishing my most beautiful part.
Do not murmur, eat. Today's Gospel passage is structured around the verb to eat. A gesture so simple and daily, yet so vital and powerful, that Jesus chose it as a symbol of the encounter with God; He told the advanced frontier of the Kingdom of Heaven with the parables of the banquet, of conviviality. The Bread that descends from heaven is the self-presentation of God as a vital matter for man. The bread you eat makes you live, and so you live by God and eat His Life, dream His dreams, prefer those He preferred. Bites of heaven.
A question arises of what am I feeding my soul and thoughts ? Am I eating generosity, beauty, depth? Or am I feeding on selfishness, intolerance, short-sightedness of spirit, senselessness of living, fears? If we welcome degraded thoughts, they make us like them. If we welcome thoughts of Gospel and beauty, these will transform us into custodians of beauty and tenderness, the bread that will save the world.