READING OF THE DAY First reading from the Book of Deuteronomy DT 8:2-3, 14B-16A
Moses said to the people: "Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert, so as to test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments. He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.
"Do not forget the LORD, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery; who guided you through the vast and terrible desert with its saraph serpents and scorpions, its parched and waterless ground; who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock and fed you in the desert with manna, a food unknown to your fathers."
Second reading from the first Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 1 COR 10:16-17
Brothers and sisters: The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY From the Gospel according to John JN 6:51-58
Jesus said to the Jewish crowds: "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 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."
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER As in that time, today too Jesus repeats to each of us: “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (v. 53). Brothers and sisters, it is not about material sustenance, but a living and life-giving bread, which conveys the very life of God. When we receive Communion we receive the very life of God. To have this life it is necessary to nourish ourselves of the Gospel and of the love of our brothers and sisters. May the Virgin Mary support our aim to enter into communion with Jesus Christ, by nourishing ourselves of his Eucharist, so as to become in our turn bread broken for our brothers and sisters. (Angelus, 19 August 2018)
S. FAUSTI - The Gospel of John, which, instead of referring to the Transfiguration, makes it the lens through which to look at everything else. In fact, he observes through the new eye and heart of the one who loves, who sees the Face of the Beloved in all things. This vision, far from being "visionary", is the realst of all, because it is made in the light of the One who is Light and Life of what exists. For the people who walked in the desert, manna was the food that guaranteed physical life, the law was the food that guaranteed eternal life. Affirming that He is the bread of Life and that His Flesh is the true Flesh of the new exodus, Jesus attributes to Himself the prerogatives of the Word. He reveals Himself as the fulfillment of what the exodus and the covenant, and even before the creation, mean: God's plan to communicate His Life to man. Eating and assimilating Him, the beloved Son of the Father who loves his brothers, is the new law. To those who do not believe that He can give Eternal Life because He is man, He answers that His very humanity is the definitive revelation of God. That is why those who do not accept Him, do not do God's works and do not receive Life. His Flesh is not metaphorical: it is really His Body given for us. Whoever eats His Flesh, true bread, feeds on Him, receives the supreme gift of God: the Body and Blood of the Son, who places Him in communion of Life with Him and with the Father. John, according to his own style, does not recount the institution of the Eucharist, which the readers know; instead, he prefers to make its profound mystery understood, explicating what the other Gospels leave implicit. Speaking of Flesh and Blood, he alludes to the cross where Jesus will give His Body and shed His Blood. It is precisely His humanity that gives to 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 has become the Son of man. Every other bread is a symbol of that which is the 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 share it with our brothers and sisters, circulating the Life of the Son in everything and for all. Truly, the Eucharist is 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 end of dialogue makes us enter into the mystery of that "surplus" of bread which is already present in every fragment of creation: it is God Himself who gives us to live of Him, of His Love. In fact, every gift implies the gift of oneself. Creation, Exodus and Covenant find their fulfilment in the Eucharist: it is the feast of the seventh day, the freedom of children, the marriage between Creator and creature, the rest of one in the other. Before a God who gives Himself to us - how can He not give Himself if He is Love! - there is nothing but amazement and endless joy. This is the mystery of love: the beloved becomes the life of the one who loves Him, "informing" his whole being, from his feeling to his thinking, from his will to his action. Paul says: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. I live this life in the flesh in the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me". (Gal 2.20). Actually this food gives us the Life of the Son!
H.U Balthasar - Thoughts - Incomprehensible sign hoisted in the middle of the world between heaven and earth! The divine sea hunted by force in the tiny source of a man's heart, the immense oak of the Divinity in the fragile little pot of an earthly heart. God, Most High, on His throne of Glory, and the Servant, kneeling in the dust that he works and worships, One and the Other no longer distinguishable... Royal consciousness of the Eternal God compressed in the unconsciousness of human humility. All the treasures of God's Wisdom and Science piled up in the narrow chamber of human poverty... Light and constant pale red vapor spreads over the white angelic fields, and the inaccessible love of the Father and the Son takes on the color of tenderness and cordiality. All the many mysteries of God, which until now hid their faces under six wings, are discovered and smile in the direction of men down there.
Holy Mary, woman of bread, haeven knows how many times inside the house of Nazareth you too have experienced the poverty of the food court. which you would have desired less unworthy of the Son of God. And like all mothers of the earth concerned to preserve from hardships the adolescence of their own creatures, you have adapted yourself to the heaviest of hardships because to Jesus you do not a bowl of legumes was missing on the table and, in the bags of his tunic, a handful of figs. Holy Mary, woman of the bread, by whom if not by you, in the days of plenty with gratitude, and in the long evenings of the narrow-mindedness with confidence, beside the fireplace that crackled without foaming pots, Jesus may have learned that phrase from Deuteronomy, with which the tempter would be confronted in the desert: "Not of alone bread lives man, but of every word that comes out of God's mouth"? Repeat that sentence to us, because we forget it easily. Do us understand that bread isn't everything. That bank accounts are not enough to make us happy. That the table full of food does not satiate, if the heart is empty of truth. That if peace of mind is lacking, even the finest foods are without taste. So when you see us groping dissatisfied around our overflowing pantries, move to compassion for us, appeases our need for happiness, and returns to lay into the manger, as you did that night in Bethlehem...the Bread... alive descended from the heavens. For only he who eats of that Bread will have no more... hunger forever.
PRAYER Soul of Christ, be my sanctification. Body of Christ, be my salvation. Blood of Christ, fill all my veins. Water of Christ’s side, wash out my stains. Passion of Christ, my comfort be. O good Jesus, listen to me. In Thy wounds I fain would hide, N’er to be parted from Thy side, Guard me, should the foe assail me. Call me when my life shall fail me. Bid me come to Thee above, With Thy saints to sing Thy love, World without end. Amen.
READING OF THE DAY
RispondiEliminaFirst reading from the Book of Deuteronomy
DT 8:2-3, 14B-16A
Moses said to the people:
"Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God,
has directed all your journeying in the desert,
so as to test you by affliction
and find out whether or not it was your intention
to keep his commandments.
He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger,
and then fed you with manna,
a food unknown to you and your fathers,
in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live,
but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.
"Do not forget the LORD, your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
that place of slavery;
who guided you through the vast and terrible desert
with its saraph serpents and scorpions,
its parched and waterless ground;
who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock
and fed you in the desert with manna,
a food unknown to your fathers."
Second reading from the first Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians
1 COR 10:16-17
Brothers and sisters:
The cup of blessing that we bless,
is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?
The bread that we break,
is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
Because the loaf of bread is one,
we, though many, are one body,
for we all partake of the one loaf.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
From the Gospel according to John
JN 6:51-58
Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:
"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 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."
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
As in that time, today too Jesus repeats to each of us: “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (v. 53). Brothers and sisters, it is not about material sustenance, but a living and life-giving bread, which conveys the very life of God. When we receive Communion we receive the very life of God. To have this life it is necessary to nourish ourselves of the Gospel and of the love of our brothers and sisters. May the Virgin Mary support our aim to enter into communion with Jesus Christ, by nourishing ourselves of his Eucharist, so as to become in our turn bread broken for our brothers and sisters. (Angelus, 19 August 2018)
S. FAUSTI - The Gospel of John, which, instead of referring to the Transfiguration, makes it the lens through which to look at everything else. In fact, he observes through the new eye and heart of the one who loves, who sees the Face of the Beloved in all things. This vision, far from being "visionary", is the realst of all, because it is made in the light of the One who is Light and Life of what exists.
RispondiEliminaFor the people who walked in the desert, manna was the food that guaranteed physical life, the law was the food that guaranteed eternal life.
Affirming that He is the bread of Life and that His Flesh is the true Flesh of the new exodus, Jesus attributes to Himself the prerogatives of the Word. He reveals Himself as the fulfillment of what the exodus and the covenant, and even before the creation, mean: God's plan to communicate His Life to man.
Eating and assimilating Him, the beloved Son of the Father who loves his brothers, is the new law.
To those who do not believe that He can give Eternal Life because He is man, He answers that His very humanity is the definitive revelation of God.
That is why those who do not accept Him, do not do God's works and do not receive Life.
His Flesh is not metaphorical: it is really His Body given for us. Whoever eats His Flesh, true bread, feeds on Him, receives the supreme gift of God: the Body and Blood of the Son, who places Him in communion of Life with Him and with the Father.
John, according to his own style, does not recount the institution of the Eucharist, which the readers know; instead, he prefers to make its profound mystery understood, explicating what the other Gospels leave implicit.
Speaking of Flesh and Blood, he alludes to the cross where Jesus will give His Body and shed His Blood.
It is precisely His humanity that gives to 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 has become the Son of man.
Every other bread is a symbol of that which is the 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 share it with our brothers and sisters, circulating the Life of the Son in everything and for all. Truly, the Eucharist is 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 end of dialogue makes us enter into the mystery of that "surplus" of bread which is already present in every fragment of creation: it is God Himself who gives us to live of Him, of His Love.
In fact, every gift implies the gift of oneself.
Creation, Exodus and Covenant find their fulfilment in the Eucharist: it is the feast of the seventh day, the freedom of children, the marriage between Creator and creature, the rest of one in the other. Before a God who gives Himself to us - how can He not give Himself if He is Love! - there is nothing but
amazement and endless joy.
This is the mystery of love: the beloved becomes the life of the one who loves Him, "informing" his whole being, from his feeling to his thinking, from his will to his action.
Paul says: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. I live this life in the flesh in the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me". (Gal 2.20).
Actually this food gives us the Life of the Son!
H.U Balthasar - Thoughts - Incomprehensible sign hoisted in the middle of the world between heaven and earth!
RispondiEliminaThe divine sea hunted by force in the tiny source of a man's heart, the immense oak of the Divinity in the fragile little pot of an earthly heart.
God, Most High, on His throne of Glory, and the Servant, kneeling in the dust that he works and worships, One and the Other no longer distinguishable...
Royal consciousness of the Eternal God compressed in the unconsciousness of human humility.
All the treasures of God's Wisdom and Science piled up in the narrow chamber of human poverty...
Light and constant pale red vapor spreads over the white angelic fields, and the inaccessible love of the Father and the Son takes on the color of tenderness and cordiality.
All the many mysteries of God, which until now hid their faces under six wings, are discovered and smile in the direction of men down there.
Prayer of Don Tonino Bello
RispondiEliminaHoly Mary, woman of bread, haeven knows how many times inside the house
of Nazareth you too have experienced the poverty of the food court. which you would have desired less unworthy of the Son of God. And like all mothers of the
earth concerned to preserve from hardships the adolescence of their own
creatures, you have adapted yourself to the heaviest of hardships because to Jesus you do not a bowl of legumes was missing on the table and, in the bags of his
tunic, a handful of figs.
Holy Mary, woman of the bread, by whom if not by
you, in the days of plenty with gratitude, and in the long evenings
of the narrow-mindedness with confidence, beside the fireplace that crackled without foaming pots, Jesus may have learned that phrase from Deuteronomy,
with which the tempter would be confronted in the desert:
"Not of alone bread lives man, but of every word that comes out of God's mouth"?
Repeat that sentence to us, because we forget it easily.
Do us understand that bread isn't everything. That bank accounts are not enough to
make us happy. That the table full of food does not satiate, if the heart
is empty of truth. That if peace of mind is lacking, even the finest foods
are without taste. So when you see us groping
dissatisfied around our overflowing pantries, move to
compassion for us, appeases our need for happiness, and returns to
lay into the manger, as you did that night in Bethlehem...the Bread...
alive descended from the heavens.
For only he who eats of that Bread will have no more...
hunger forever.
PRAYER
RispondiEliminaSoul of Christ, be my sanctification.
Body of Christ, be my salvation.
Blood of Christ, fill all my veins.
Water of Christ’s side, wash out my stains.
Passion of Christ, my comfort be.
O good Jesus, listen to me.
In Thy wounds I fain would hide,
N’er to be parted from Thy side,
Guard me, should the foe assail me.
Call me when my life shall fail me.
Bid me come to Thee above,
With Thy saints to sing Thy love,
World without end. Amen.