Fr Kevin Kilgore

***

Gospel: John 6:52-59

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
“How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?”
Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.
For my Flesh is true food,
and my Blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

The Gospel of the Lord.

***

***

In the Book of Genesis, how do Adam and Eve break their communion with God?

Through an act of eating.

As Satan the serpent slithers in the Garden of Eden, he convinces Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge, which she then shares with Adam. 

This act of disobedience breaks the command given by God to Adam: “You are free to eat from any of the trees in the garden, except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; when you eat from it, you shall die.”

Christians understand this to be the origin of sin – and by extension the evil that is still present in our world today. Once humanity’s relationship with God was severed, “all hell broke loose,” as it were.

***

In today’s Gospel, Jesus reveals how our relationship with God can be restored.

Just as Adam and Eve lost communion with God through a disobedient act of eating, so we are brought back into relationship with our Father through an obedient act of eating.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”

Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge. 

In the Eucharist, we consume Christ’s own Body and Blood, the fruit of the Cross.

***

As incredible as this gift is, we must remember the words of Pope Francis: “The Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.”

While we receive Christ cautiously and with a heart full of gratitude, we also recognize the responsibility that it bears. As Saint Augustine once said, “Become what you consume.”

Be the hands, the face, the reconciling voice of Christ in the world through acts of prayer, charity, and self-sacrifice. 

What might that look like for us today?

***

***

Image credits: (1) Capella Sistina, Michelangelo (2) JW.org (3) Catholic Answers

***

Gospel: John 6: 44-51

Jesus said to the crowds:
“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.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

***

***

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,” the Lord says in today’s Gospel. Whenever this verb draw is used in scripture, it implies a type of resistance, of pushing and pulling.

For example, John uses this verb to describe Saint Peter dragging a net full of fish ashore. The same verb is later used in the Acts of the Apostles to describe Paul and Silas being dragged before government authorities.

It’s the same verb Jesus uses to describe the spiritual dynamics between God and his creation in today’s Gospel. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him.”

Imagine a game of tug-of-war. God is tugging us on one side, but we are pulling away on the other.

***

When do I experience this tension in my conscience or my spiritual life? 

***

Maybe we’ve dragged our feet when needing to offer an apology. 

Or we’ve been reticent to let go of a lingering habit.

Perhaps we allow other demands for our time to draw us away from prayer, scripture study, or church. Maybe we allow fear to keep us from sharing our faith.

Even Saint Paul laments this tension between his flesh and his spirit. “I do not do what I want, but what I hate. So it is no longer I who do it, but sin dwelling in me.”

The only way to rid ourselves of these things is to follow the path of surrender, giving up on the tug-of-war, allowing God to do the only thing he desires.

To draw us closer to himself.

***

***

Image credits: (1) Sky’s the Limit Entertainment (2) Patrick Slevin’s Blog, WordPress (3) Laughter Thoughts

***

Acts: 8: 1-8

There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem,
and all were scattered
throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria,
except the Apostles.
Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him.
Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church;
entering house after house and dragging out men and women,
he handed them over for imprisonment.

Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.
Thus Philip went down to the city of Samaria
and proclaimed the Christ to them.
With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip
when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.
For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice,
came out of many possessed people,
and many paralyzed and crippled people were cured.
There was great joy in that city.

The Word of the Lord.

***

***

Throughout the Easter Season, our first reading is taken from the Acts of the Apostles, describing the life of the early Church, which was often riddled with difficulty.

 “There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem, and all were scattered throughout the countryside, except the Apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him. Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church.”

Although worldly powers, even religious forces, tried stomping out our faith, it grew. The persecution in Jerusalem caused many to flee to new, distant lands, bringing their faith with them. By the end of the first century, the Gospel message spread as far east as India!

***

The same forces of opposition and grace are working in our world today.

Pope Leo’s visit to Africa highlights this truth – that in spite of persecution, or even because it, the Church grows due to its attractive message of love, peace, reconciliation, and salvation.

In fact, the Catholic faith is growing faster in Africa than anywhere else in the world!

Offering words of encouragement to our brothers and sisters in Cameroon, Leo said, “How beautiful are your feet, dusty from this bloodstained yet fertile land…Your feet have brought you this far, and despite the difficulties and obstacles, they have remained on the path of goodness.”

Although we may not experience the same level of pain or persecution as the early Church, or our African brothers and sisters today, they all remind us of the role the Church is to play in every age.

To be light where there is darkness, to bear love where there is hatred, to bring peace where there is war, to bring the vigor of salt where there is indifference – not only across nations, but also to every human heart.

***

What might that look like for us today?

***

***

Image credits: (1) Harvest Church of God (2) Detroit Catholic (3) The Record Newspaper