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Daily Scripture

+ 5th Week in Ordinary Time

It still has meaning.

1 Kings 8:1-7, 9-13 Psalm 132:6-7, 8-10 Mark 6:53-56

The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place beneath the wings of the cherubim in the sanctuary, the holy of holies of the temple. There was nothing in the ark but the two stone tablets which Moses had put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel. [1 Kings 8:6, 8]
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In recent years there has been much discussion in liturgical circles about the proper location of the tabernacle in the worship space. The directives implementing the Constitution on the Liturgy by the Second Vatican Council prescribed that the tabernacle be located in prominent location in the church or chapel, preferably in a chapel dedicated to the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament and appropriate for veneration. In any case, it was not to be located on the altar table used for the celebration of the Eucharist. As a result in many churches renovations, the tabernacle was moved to the ‘side altar’ previously used for the veneration of the Blessed Virgin or St. Joseph and in some churches, it was placed on the old altar previously used for Mass. In situations the old altar was replaced with a permanent pedestal on which the tabernacle was placed.

In liturgical matters, nothing is simple. Those of a more conservative disposition insisted that the location of the Tabernacle on the side altar reduced the status of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist thereby diminishing its meaning in the devotional life of the faithful. Others of a more liberal persuasion opined that in fact, the location in a separate chapel within the church assigned to the sacrament greater prominence thereby increasing the devotional aspect. Moreover, in as much as an emphasis of the ‘action’ of the Mass as the repetition of the “Lord’s Supper” was promoted by the Council, it seemed to liturgists that the location of the tabernacle in the main sanctuary behind the free standing Eucharist table would compete with the ‘action’ of the Mass as a sacred meal.

The most recent prescriptions in the United States provide that the tabernacle be located in the main sanctuary on suitably ornate pedestal. It is ironic that in the major basilicas including the basilica of St. Peter in Rome, the tabernacle is located on a side altar that is not very prominent.

Whatever the location, it should not be a bone of contention worthy of a liturgical battle. The public and private devotion to the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is rooted in the long tradition of the Church and should not be disparaged. In the same way in which the tablets of stone on which the Ten Commandments was symbolic of God’s presence in the temple, so too, the reservation of the Eucharist Bread has been one of the longest-standing practices of the devotional life of Catholics. It is intended to extend the meaning and the effects of the Eucharistic celebration into the life of the faithful who continue to spend time in prayerful meditation on the mysteries of the life of Jesus not the least of which is his faithfulness unto death on the cross for the salvation of the world. The two aspects of Eucharist need not be in competition. The ‘Mass’ continues to be considered a “sacrificial” meal. But we need to be clear that its connection with the passion and death of Christ even as the lamb of God is not to suggest that his death was mandated to satisfy and angry God. That in my opinion is not an appropriate application of Old Testament sacrifices. No, Jesus sacrificial death was the completion of his entire sacrificial life of unqualified and indiscriminate love in the same way as the sacrificial love of partners in marriage offer their sacrificial love to one another or in the manner that Mother Teresa offered her live in sacrificial service to victims of poverty in the streets of Calctta. It is in this sense that devotion to the Eucharist in the tabernacle takes its extended meaning.

During the celebration of the Eucharist, we become what we eat. Through our devotion to the Eucharist reserved in the tabernacle, we are reminded that the Eucharistic presence in our mind, heart and soul extends into all the good works of our lives with the hope that we too will always think and act with the same sacrificial love as did Jesus in his earthly life.

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 'B'

Sunday August 2, 2009

Look beyond the bread you eat.

“Babette’s Feast” is a wonderful 1987 Oscar winning film based on a short story by Isak Dinesen. It is filled with rich symbolism, wit and in the words of a Newsweek review, “robust humanity” that depicts the transformation of a ‘community’ of strangers into a feast of friends through a French gourmet meal. The setting is on the desolate coast of Denmark where Martina and Philippa, devout daughters of their very stern father and clergyman who preached salvation through rigid self-denial. Despite opportunities for romance, marriage, and a career in music, they carried on the mission of their father to a stoic and Spartan life-style long after his death until the arrival of Babette a colorful refugee of the French civil war whom they had hired as a servant. The beauty of the story is in the wisdom of the charming Babette who in the preparation for the feast brings out of the disparate group of strangers a new vision of what living the Christian life could be like when experienced as a feast.

How often have we read in the Scriptures a reference to the kingdom of God as a feast or banquet?

What would life be without food? What would life be without bread?

This is a question I used to ask young candidates for First Communion during family night. On this occasion, first communion candidates and their families would gather in the church for their final preparation for the feast – their First Holy Communion. All the candidates were asked to bring a loaf of their favorite bread. Many of the moms or dads baked their own bread. The session opened with an invitation to each candidate to stand in turn before the gathering to tell us his or her name and then name their favorite bread as they held it aloft. “My name is Kenny and my favorite bread is….” The variety of breads included everything from plain white to zucchini and potato bread and a hundred other names I had never heard before. The church had the fragrance of a large bakery.

I explained that although we come from different families and like the bread, we are all very different, when we gather in the name of Jesus, we become one family. After a bit of dialogue with the children, we retired to the gymnasium where they made Eucharistic banners attaching their names to each banner that would be hung on their family pew at the celebration of first Communion. And then they shared their bread from a common table.

The ceremony was rich in symbol and broadened their understanding of the Eucharist. It was an effort to raise their consciousness and that of their parents to look beyond the sign and the symbols to see that Jesus feeds us not just with bread but also with his very life. In effect, in the words of St. Paul, they needed not just to learn about Jesus but they had to learn Jesus by living Jesus – at an age appropriate level.

Yes, to learn Jesus is to live Jesus. That’s what we come to celebrate at this table.

In today’s gospel, Jesus challenges those who followed him to Capernaum to look beyond the bread that he had give them on the side of the hill. In essence he was saying, “Yes God provided manna to your ancestors in the desert, but the bread that God is providing is more than food for your body. It is wisdom for your soul.” In chapter fourteen of John’s Gospel, Jesus said to Thomas, “I am the way, the truth and the life. Those who live in me will not die but live.” In other words, those who partake of this food will be transformed and live a new kind of life but here again, he was not just speaking of bread but of the totality of his life and lifestyle.

When John describes Jesus as the new manna and the bread of life, he means Jesus as the “divine sophia” or wisdom of life. To the extent that we live in Jesus, we are able to respond to life’s challenges with insight, courage, grace, and dignity. Indeed, rather than cave into or melt down before them, we will grow through these challenges. Moreover, in Christ we are able to look beyond the bread and see one another as our sisters and brothers. We are challenged to look beyond the brokenness of life to new horizons that brings justice to our world and healing and peace to troubled hearts.

In his letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul suggests to us that we cannot go it alone nor as “believers” can we trust the wisdom of the world — the desire for profit, material success. We must raise to consciousness the Spirit we received at baptism which in fact gave us the radical capacity and potential to live our humanity to the fullest with our eyes set on the higher goal of eternal life -salvation.

John tells us that eternal life-salvation is a gift that was given to us at baptism that continues throughout our lives to generate the wisdom and grace to think with God, to respond with Christ and to do the right thing. We need to come to this ‘Gospel table’ together and drink in the wisdom of God’s word and to this Eucharist table to become the bread that we eat—not just to survive but also to flourish.

As our ancestors of old grumbled in the desert, we sometimes whine and grumble and pine for the good old days while ignoring the bad old days.

But we can’t go back to the old days. We need to remain steadfast in the present and move confidently into the future. Indeed, “[we] do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”