26th August 2018 (Year B)

 May God in this Sunday's Eucharist bestow upon you the insight to choose worshiping him and the courage of heart to persevere with your decision. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye 

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

          (Joshua 24,1-2, 15-18; Ephesians 5,21-32; John 6,60-69: Year B)

Today, the first reading and the gospel reading challenge us to take decisions that could affect us through all our lives. In the first reading, all the tribes and all those who hold a position of leadership gather at Shechem. Joshua’s address to the assembly is in the form of prophetic declaration: Thus says the Lord. He places before the people a choice that will shape their own self-identity and will determine the path they and their descendants will travel for the rest of their lives. Whom will they serve? Three options were given. First, they can continue to serve their ancestral gods and thus remain true to their past identity. Or, they can opt for the gods of the people in whose land they were dwelling and thus hope to reap the blessings that accompany that land. Finally, they can worship the Lord, who is tied neither to their cultural past nor their geographic present. They must make a choice from among all the gods to whom they will commit themselves. Joshua’s statement of choice is decisive: We will serve the Lord. The rest of the people make the same decision: We will serve the Lord because he is our God.  In explaining the reasons for their choice, they rehearse the high points of the saving acts that God performed in their midst and for their sake. These include the deliverance from bondage, the wonders in the wilderness, and the entrance into the land. Through all of these, God was there, protecting them at every step of the way. Their choice of a god was determined not by the territory within which they lived, as was the case with many of the nations of the time, but by God’s personal involvement in their lives. Their choice to serve the Lord was a beautiful profession of faith, a beautiful commitment of fidelity to the Lord.

In the gospel reading, we notice the shocking disbelief to the teaching of Jesus that comes, not from his Jewish opponents but from some of his own disciples. They were more than shocked, they were scandalized by what he said. What he had just been saying to them about himself was more than even they could take. Hence, the author was referring to Jesus’ identification of himself as the Son of Man who had come down from heaven. Eventually some of the disciples no longer followed him. Jesus was not indifferent toward the departure of these disciples. He turned to them to see what they were going to do. He neither asked them to stay nor gave them permission to go. He simply posed the question: Do you want to leave too? Assuming the role of spokesperson of the Twelve, Simon Peter responded with three statements of faith. The first is quite guileless. He declared that there is no one else to whom they could go to, because there is no one else quite like Jesus. With his second statement he showed that he has accepted what Jesus has just been teaching about eternal life. The final statement brings his profession of faith to an amazing conclusion. He uses a messianic title to identify Jesus. This passage indicates that while some of his followers have turned away, others have been convinced of the trustworthiness of Jesus’ claims.

Our consideration of Jesus’ teaching about the bread of life (that has been running for some Sundays now) leads us to the threshold of decision. Will we choose Jesus, despite the incredible claims he makes? Or will we decide to stay where we are, satisfied with the lives we are living? Choosing Jesus will bring us deeper and deeper into the mystery of the Eucharist. Are we willing to go there? The decisions called for in today’s readings are not the kind we face every day, they are not choices among several options, all of relatively the same value. Rather, they are life decisions, the kind that determine the fundamental direction we will take and consequently influence every other decision we will make. The people at the time of Joshua had to decide which god they would worship. This decision would determine their identity. They would be known as the people of whichever god they would choose, and they would be bound to the norms and practices set down by that god. “Decide today whom you will serve.” The disciples of Jesus had to make a similar decision. Was he the one who would fulfil their messianic expectations? And if not to him, “To whom shall we go?”

The choices we make really determine the character of our union with God. It is God who has called us out of the slavery of sin and protected us throughout the journey of our lives. When we find ourselves at the point of decision, why should we choose someone else? If we have walked with Jesus through some of the challenges of life and have witnessed the wonders he can perform, why should we choose someone else? The new demands placed on us may be so great, or the commitment required of us may be so demanding, that we feel we can no longer walk with him. The Church may be changing in ways we do not appreciate, or it may not be changing in the ways we believe it should, so we feel that we can no longer walk with him no longer. If we decide to commit ourselves, we will enter into a union with God deeper than anything we have previously known. However, this union will be based on faith. We may understand no more than we did in the past, and things may not turn out to our liking. But “to whom shall we go?” Jesus is God’s holy one; he has the words of eternal life. To him alone shall we go and have eternal life. Therefore may God give us the graces we need to make a good choice, to always and in all circumstances of our lives stay with him, for he is life. Happy Sunday. +John. I. Okoye

(graphics  by charles)

20th Sunday: Year B

May you in this Eucharistic celebration through the Holy Communion you receive  be profoundly and intimately united with Jesus Christ  who donates his flesh and blood for your nourishment in this life and for eternal life in the next. Happy Sunday ! +John I. Okoye

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Prov. 9, 1-6; Ephesians 5, 15-20; John 6, 51-58; 20th Sunday: Year B)

    We recall that in the last Sunday’s gospel when Jesus affirmed that he was the bread of life, the true bread that descended from heaven the Jews murmured, thereby contesting his divine origin. Reacting to their murmuring, Jesus went further to state that he not only did descend from heaven, sent by the Father and seen the Father but that he was also the living bread which gives eternal life: Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world. The thought of feeding on human flesh was repulsive to some of his hearers and they started arguing: How can he give us his flesh to eat? In unmistakable language Jesus insisted that his flesh was food and his blood was drink. Lest this claim should go unnoticed, he stated it four times (vv. 53-56). The phrase flesh and blood is rich in meaning. On a literal level, it is a common way of characterizing a human being. When applied to Jesus, it is a proclamation of faith in the incarnation. He was indeed flesh and blood. On another level, it calls to mind the victim of sacrifice that is first slaughtered (flesh and blood) and then shared at a cultic meal (food and drink). Jesus is flesh and blood in this way as well, first as the sacrificial victim on the cross and then as Eucharistic food and drink. 
The Christological interpretation of the manna has taken on new meaning here. The flesh and blood of Jesus have become the source of life for those who partake of it. In other words, eternal life comes from feeding on Jesus, not simply from believing in him, as was stated in the Gospel readings of past Sundays (John 6:29, Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time; 6:47, Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time). Jesus goes one step further in his teaching on eternal life. He implies that it is not something that believers merely hope to enjoy in the future. Instead, those who share in the Eucharist already possess eternal life. What the future holds for them is the fullness of life that will be enjoyed after the general resurrection on the last day. The course through which eternal life passes from God to us is simply sketched. The living God whom Jesus calls Father is the source of this life; Jesus already enjoys it because of his intimate union with God; believers already enjoy it because they feed on Jesus, who is the bread of life. 

Jesus still develops the eating metaphor further. He maintains that just as we and what we eat and drink become one, so Jesus and those who feed on him form an intimate union. In a mutually intimate way, they abide in him and he in them. The Greek word used here (menei) means to stay in a place, to abide forever. This implies that Jesus does not merely visit those who feed on him, he stays with them; dwells there permanently. Eucharistic union with Jesus is as intimate as the act of eating, and the mutual indwelling that results from it is just as personal. There should now be no question in the minds of his hearers. Jesus, not manna, is the bread that came, not from the sky but from the very being of God. Those who ate manna died; those who feed on Jesus live forever.

The word Eucharist comes from the Greek word eucharisteo which means I give thanks. We should always and everywhere be thankful to God for the gift of the Eucharist. The best way we can appreciate the immensity of love Jesus showed us in the gift of his Body and Blood is to respond to this invitation with love and devotion, always partake of this holy meal and allow it to transform our lives. It would be a contradiction to feed on Life Himself without becoming fully alive and sharing this life with others. The worst of it all would be to treat this wonderful gift of love with indifference or cold response as many do today.  For those who have lost touch with this sacrament all together, let the words of Christ, today, serve as a reawakening: “If you do not eat the flesh… and drink his blood, you will not have life in you”. May we, therefore, pray in this Eucharistic celebration that through the Holy Communion we receive, we may be profoundly and intimately united with Jesus Christ who donates his flesh and blood for our nourishment in this life and for eternal life in the next. Happy Sunday ! +John I. Okoye.

 (graphics  by chukwubike)

19th Sunday of Year B: 2018

By partaking of his word and Eucharist, may the Lord bless you with heavenly graces especially that you may respond positively to his love  and be ready to help others. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(1Kings 19,4-8; Ephesians 4,30-5:2; John 6,41-51: 19th Sunday of Year B: 2018)

The three readings of today seem to be logically connected. The first reading taken from the book of Kings presents prophet Elijah who is forced to run away from his homeland to escape the persecution of queen Jezebel. After a day’s journey in the desert, tired, desolate and resting under a furze bush, he desired death when he said: Lord, I have had enough. Take my life…But according to the plan of God he has not finished his difficult mission. Then came a mysterious messenger, an angel, sent by God who brought him food and drink two times. With the strength he gathered from the food and drink he was able to walk for forty days and forty nights until he reached Mount Horeb. Certainly, we also in the course of our lives, encounter difficult situations and sometimes are even tempted to say:  O God, I cannot go on again, I cannot make it, …it is better that I die than to continue living this way. Even if we do not arrive to this point, there is no doubt that life can be rough on us, and beset with pitfalls, problems and difficulties. In such situations it is easy to be bewildered, loo777se sense of direction and feel incapacitated to continue the journey of life. 

But Jesus comes to meet us in such difficult moments and situations as he says to us in the Gospel of today:  I am the bread that came down from heaven; I am the bread of life; I am the living bread and adds, If anyone eats of this breed he will live forever; For the bread which I will give you is my flesh for the life of the world. He who believes has eternal life. Jesus Christ offers himself to us as food: living bread, bread of life, bread that descended from heaven. The food and nourishment that he offers are not for our physical and natural body but for our spiritual, supernatural/divine life, not for our earthly life but for our celestial life in eternity. Jesus offers himself as food  and nourishment for our existence in two ways: through his Word and through the Mystery of the Eucharist.

The above affirmations of Jesus are incredible/stunning, perturbing and beyond human understanding. Yet, what is expected of us is to give assent of faith to them, to accept Christ in his human and divine realties and in his capacity to give eternal life. It all means to believe in him, trust him with great humility and simplicity of heart, not to prevaricate or engage in discussions as did the Jews who were murmuring saying how can he say…“I am the bread that came down from heaven”. It is all about believing in one important issue: that Jesus Christ is the one who came from God and has seen the Father and it is the Father who sent him. Certainly, faith is a gift; it is a grace and John the Evangelist is aware of this when he writes that Jesus says in today’s gospel: No one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me. God gives the grace but it behoves us Christians to allow ourselves to be drawn by the Father, to listen to his voice, allow ourselves be taught by Him and welcome his light and open ourselves to it. It is expected from us not to close in unto ourselves, in our very limited vision basking in our security and presumed auto sufficiency. To have a deep relationship with Christ it is necessary to be docile to God the Father. Here what is meant is  not superficial comportment but a profound docility. It is only if in our lives we are docile to the Father and listen to his voice  that invites us to reject evil and do good that we are drawn by him and we enter into an authentic rapport with Jesus. 

The Evangelist John attests that he who believes in Jesus Christ as the one sent by the Father, descended from heaven, came from God, that is to say, he who believes in the divinity of Christ and nourishes himself of Christ (the living bread) through his Word and the Eucharist has eternal life. Note that the grammatical mood of the verb is in the present indicative (has) and this means that such a person already is participating in the divine life in this earthly life. But this is in its initial inchoative manner that will mature into perfection in the next life. To feed on Christ, the living bread and to nourish oneself through his Word and Eucharist means sharing in his very thoughts, sentiments and desires; it means clothing oneself in Jesus as Paul expresses in Romans 13,14 and Galatians 3,27. It means establishing a rapport with Christ. Feeding ourselves on Christ; with his Word and his Eucharist it is very possible that it will also establish new rapport among people, a rapport that is based on love and selflessness or the will to oppress and dominate. Feeding ourselves of Christ will make it possible for us to put into practice Paul’s exhortation to the Ephesians: …follow Christ by loving as he loved you, giving himself up in our place as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

18th Sunday Year B

Through the graces of this Sunday’s Eucharistic celebration may you realise your dependency on God and Jesus, the bread and source of life and thereby be transformed in your innermost being. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Exodus 16, 2-4.12-15; Ephesians 4, 17,20-24; John 6,24-35: 18^th Sunday Year B)

This Sunday`s liturgy proposes that we reflect on the discussion of Jesus on the bread of life in the gospel of today. The first reading takes up the issue of the gift of manna from God to his people in the desert. In the wilderness they were hungry and longed to be satisfied. They were discouraged in the face of hunger. Their very real need for food put their faith in God to the test. The entire Israelite community grumbled to Moses and Aaron. Although it is God’s leadership that is being challenged, it is God’s appointed leaders who are being blamed. Since the people are in a very vulnerable situation in the wilderness, a certain amount of complaint is understandable. It is not the complaint itself but its content that is disturbing. The people prefer their former situation of oppression in Egypt with food rather than their present freedom without food.

The deliverance from Egypt was the founding event that shaped the motley (mixed) group of forced laborers into a distinctive people with a singular relationship with the liberating God. The events that surrounded the Exodus demonstrated again and again God’s preference for the descendants of Jacob. Now they are suggesting that it would have been better had God not intervened on their behalf. To them, freedom with a commitment to this liberating God seems a small price to pay for the satisfaction of the meat (fleshpots) and bread of Egypt.

One would think that the phenomenal character of the Exodus events would have prompted the people to develop a faith that would be unshakable amid the obstacles they were now facing. After all, God had conquered the forces of the pharaoh, a ruler who claimed to have divine power and whose subjects revered that power. Elements within the descriptions of God’s mighty acts suggest that the deliverance itself was a kind of cosmic battle and God was the victor. Now the people wished this to be undone. Such a desire is a total rejection of God.

God heard their rebellious grumbling and responded with provisions. They had longed for the meat and bread of Egypt, and God promises to send meat and bread from heaven. Once again, God demonstrates divine power and a preference for the Israelites. However, the reason for this display is that the people may know that the Lord is their God (v. 12). Their grumbling implies that they were willing to relinquish their privileged status. God’s action on their part shows that God is not willing to do so.

In the gospel reading the crowd who were fed by Jesus was able to encounter Jesus on the other side of the lake of Tiberias. First, Jesus is well aware of the reason the crowd have followed him. He knows it is not really or basically for any religious reason. They were not looking for signs of the presence of God in their midst. They had been fed by him and they wanted more of the same. Jesus turns their desire for bread into an opportunity to teach them about a different kind of food. The bread they desired would only satisfy them temporarily, but he had food that would endure. The crowds had been given bread without having had to work for it, but they know that normally they would have to toil very hard for it. Once again Jesus uses an idea they know well to teach a deeper truth. He reinterprets work. Manual labor produces common bread; a different kind of work is required for the bread of which Jesus speaks. When they ask him how they can accomplish the works of God (presumably the works of the law), he reinterprets work once again. The work of God is faith in Jesus. This is a bold claim, and the crowds demand that he give them a reason to believe in him. For example, God fed their ancestors with bread from heaven. What can he do? A startling challenge after Jesus himself has just provided them with bread. In taking up this challenge, Jesus argues that just as God gave their ancestors manna from heaven, so God gives them the true bread from heaven, the bread that gives life to the world. Through careful explanation, Jesus has led them away from a superficial search for physical satisfaction to a desire for the deeper things of God. More than that, he has prepared them for his self-proclamation: I am the bread of life.

This Sunday continues the theme of the bread of life. The readings again show God’s loving care for the people. However, on this Sunday the meaning of this feeding begins to unfold. The food that is given is not just bread from the earth; it is bread from heaven. We hear this in the first reading. The Gospel tells us that Jesus is the true bread from heaven. In many ways the Exodus story of the bread from heaven is similar to last Sunday’s accounts. God uses natural means to feed the people. Last week it was barley loaves; this week it is substance from the tamarisk tree and low-flying quail. However, something is different in today’s story. There is not an overabundance of food. In fact, the people are forbidden to collect more than they need for that day. The point of this story is not divine prodigality but total dependence on God. The bread comes from heaven not merely because the food seems to come down from the sky but because it comes from God. The restriction about collecting it was meant to emphasize this point. Our survival is in God’s hands, not ours. Jesus insists that he is the true bread from heaven; he is the real basis of our survival. The people followed him because they saw him as a source of bread; they did not realize that he is also the source of life. If we fill ourselves with all that the world provides as nourishment we will still hunger. Neither the barley loaves nor the food that God supplied in the wilderness will permanently satisfy us. We will feast on it, but we will be hungry again. The bread that Jesus is, this bread that really comes from heaven, is different. Its effects will endure for eternal life. It is faith in Jesus that will satisfy our deepest hungers, and we will not be able to survive apart from him. Acceptance of Jesus as the source of our life and the very nourishment of our spirits effects a total transformation in us. We are no longer content to live with full bellies but empty minds. We put aside our old selves steeped in ignorance and self-interest, and we put on a new self created in his image. Having fed on the bread from heaven, we are mysteriously transformed into it. The spirit of our minds has been renewed. We have learned Christ; we are nourished by his teaching. As a result, we launch out into a way of living that witnesses to our new understanding, our new life. May we pray in this Eucharistic celebration for the graces to be ever dependent on God and on Jesus, the bread and source of life and thereby be transformed in our innermost being. Happy Sunday! + John I. Okoye

(graphics  by chukwubike)