August 17, 2003
Proverbs 9:1-6 + Ephesians 5:15-20 + John 6:51-58
If you are visiting us or have been away for more than three weeks, what is now happening may catch you off guard and for a moment make you uneasy and uncertain, wondering if I am mixed up or simply do not know how the sequence of things is supposed to go. For the five weeks we hear the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel I have proposed that we consider the Word of God a “Feast” in itself, and savor every course of the meal with very quiet reflections. To help with that, especially because the first Old Testament text is so unfamiliar, I am preaching first to provide you some thoughts with which to savor and enjoy the rich fare we are given these five summer weeks.
The first Old Testament text today is from Proverbs. We do not often hear this marvelous piece proclaimed at Liturgy. Today we will hear half of an extended reflection on Wisdom. If at home you read just a little further on, you will hear the other part. The two pieces are a comparison of Wisdom and Folly. Both are personified as women: one a great lady, the other a woman of the street. Each has built a house, prepared a banquet and sent invitations to guests who are urged to come and feast. Both invitations are ironically similar. However, Wisdom’s banquet of dressed meat and mixed wines will result in life for those share them while those who accept Folly’s invitation will be fed only on stolen bread and water and will wind up in the depths of the nether world. And there you see the point and get the lesson. Those who seek wisdom find life. Those content with silliness and folly welcome death. These are the radical alternatives the Word of God puts before us, and as we hear in another place, we are urged to “seek wisdom” and “choose life.”
Once we have been prepared by the Old Testament texts, we hear an Ephesians text that leads us to root our reflection in the context of the Eucharist, and then comes one of the seven great “I AM” passages of John’s Gospel. Hear it with all the power and awesome mystery of the voice in the burning bush. John wanted to do that.
Yet, there is a very obvious shift happening in this chapter at this point. The verses in the previous three weeks have been concerned with identity. “Who is this man?” Now it becomes a matter of:
“What is this man?” And will be settled with his first spoken words in today’s text. Now there is a change in tone and somewhat different language. The emphasis shifts from the identity of the bread of life to the identity of life in the Eucharist. In other words, now that we know what this is, what difference does it make? The radical alternative is put before us. It is focused on our relationship to Jesus, and it is a matter of wisdom or foolishness, of life or death.
The foolish quarrel among themselves over words without asking their meaning. They want to know “How” instead of “Why”. Listen to them and learn from their folly. The issue in this text is the presence of Jesus which is the reason for the meal. It is ultimately about
the communication of divine sharing and divine self-giving. It all happens in human terms. This is simply about God becoming human
and revealing His Presence in human flesh and blood. This text is about flesh and blood, human flesh and blood, nothing else. There is no mystery, no magic, no play on words, just real and true flesh and blood.
The problem for those who quarreled among themselves is the same problem before us, believing that our flesh and blood can really sustain such a gift that is so far beyond our fondest hopes and greatest needs.
Listen then, and feast on this Word of God, for that Word has taken flesh and God is really and truly among us,never more real than among those who share the feast of this table.