Readings
for
10 August 2003
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Today's First Reading is from The First Book of Kings, beginning at the
19th
Chapter and the 4th Verse (1
Kings 19:4-8)
But Elijah went a day's journey into the
wilderness, and
came and sat down under a broom tree; and he asked that he might die,
saying, "It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am no
better than my fathers." And he lay down and slept under a broom
tree; and behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, "Arise and
eat." And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake
baked on hot
stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank, and lay down
again. And the angel of the LORD came again a second time, and
touched him,
and said, "Arise and eat, else the journey will be too great for
you." And he arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength
of that food
forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.
La Primera Lectura es del Libro
1mo de los Reyes, empezando en el 19 Capitulo, y el 4mo Verso (1 Reyes
19:4-8)
Y Elias se fue por el desierto un día de
camino, y vino y se sentó debajo
de un enebro; y deseando morirse, dijo: Basta ya, oh Señor,
quítame la
vida, pues no soy yo mejor que mis padres. Y echándose debajo
del enebro, se quedó dormido; y he aquí luego un
ángel le tocó, y le dijo: Levántate, come.
Entonces él miró, y he aquí a su cabecera una
torta cocida sobre las
ascuas, y una vasija de agua; y comió y bebió, y
volvió a dormirse. Y volviendo el ángel de Señor
la segunda vez, lo tocó, diciendo: Levántate y come,
porque largo camino te resta. Se levantó, pues, y comió y
bebió; y fortalecido con aquella comida
caminó cuarenta días y cuarenta noches hasta Horeb, el
monte de Dios.
Today's Song of Praise is taken from Psalm 34: (Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9):
R Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the Lord;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Glorify the Lord with me,
Let us together extol his name.
I sought the Lord, and he answered me
And delivered me from all my fears.
R Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy.
And your faces may not blush with shame.
When the afflicted man called out, the Lord heard,
And from all his distress he saved him.
R Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him and delivers them.
Taste and see how good the Lord is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him.
R Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
El
Salmo Responsorial se toma del Salmo 34
La respuesta es: Prueben y vean que el Señor es bueno;
Prueben y vean que el Señor es bueno;
Bendeciré al Señor en todo tiempo;
mis labios siempre lo alabarán.
Mi *alma se gloría en el Señor;
lo oirán los humildes y se alegrarán.
Prueben y vean que el
Señor es bueno;
Engrandezcan al Señor conmigo;
exaltemos a una su nombre.
Busqué al Señor, y él me respondió;
me libró de todos mis temores.
Prueben y vean que el
Señor es bueno;
Radiantes están los que a él acuden;
jamás su rostro se cubre de vergüenza.
Este pobre clamó, y el Señor le oyó
y lo libró de todas sus angustias.
Prueben y vean que el
Señor es bueno;
El ángel del Señor acampa en torno a los que le
temen;
a su lado está para librarlos.Tet
Prueben y vean que el Señor es bueno;
*dichosos los que en él se refugian.
Today's Epistle is from the Letter of Paul to the
Ephesians, beginning at the 4th Chapter, and the 30th Verse (Eph 4:30 -- 5:2):
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in
whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all
bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from
you, with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be
imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as
Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and
sacrifice to God.
Epistolo del libro de San Pablo a los
Efesianos, empezando en el Capitulo 4, y el Verso 30 (Efes 4:30 -
5:2)
Y no contristéis al Espíritu Santo
de Dios, con el cual estáis sellados para el día de la
redención. Toda amargura, y enojó, é ira, y
voces, y maledicencia sea quitada de vosotros, y toda malicia: Antes
sed los unos con los otros benignos,
misericordiosos, perdónandoos los unos á los otros, como
también Dios
os perdonó en Cristo. SED, pues, imitadores de Dios como
hijos amados: Y andad en amor, como también Cristo nos
amó, y se
entregó á sí mismo por nosotros, ofrenda y
sacrificio á Dios en olor
suave.
A Reading from the Gospel of John, beginning at the 6th Chapter,
and
the 41st Verse (Jn 6:41-51):
The Jews then murmured at him, because he
said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." They said,
"Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and
mother we know? How does he now say, `I have come down from heaven'?"
Jesus answered them, "Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can
come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise
him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, `And they
shall all be taught by God.'
Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.
Not that any one has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has
seen the Father. Amern, Amen, I say to you, he who believes has
eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the
manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which
comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the
living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of
this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for
the life of the world is my flesh."
+Lectura d Santo Evangelio
según San Juan, empezando en el 6mo Capitulo, y el 41mo
Verso (Juan 6:41-51)
Murmuraban entonces de él los
Judíos, porque había dicho: Yo soy el pan que
descendí del cielo. Y decían: ¿No es
éste Jesús, el hijo de José, cuyo
padre y madre nosotros conocemos? ¿cómo, pues, dice
éste: Del cielo he
descendido? Y Jesús respondió, y díjoles: No
murmuréis entre vosotros. Ninguno puede venir á
mí, si el Padre que me envió no le trajere; y yo le
resucitaré en el día postrero. Escrito está
en los profetas: Y serán todos enseñados de Dios.
Así que, todo aquel que oyó del Padre, y aprendió,
viene á mí. No que alguno haya visto al Padre, sino
aquel que vino de Dios, éste ha visto al Padre. De cierto,
de cierto os digo: El que cree en mí, tiene vida
eterna. Yo soy el pan de vida. Vuestros padres
comieron el maná en el desierto, y son muertos. Este es el
pan que desciende del cielo, para que el que de él comiere, no
muera. Yo soy el pan vivo que he descendido del cielo: si
alguno comiere de este pan, vivirá para siempre; y el pan que yo
daré
es mi carne, la cual yo daré por la vida del mundo.
Sermon
for
10 August 2003
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
The response line in today's Song of Praise:
Taste and see the goodness of the
Lord
Prueben y vean que el Señor es bueno
. . . is one of my very favorite lines from the Psalms.
I first remember it from about the time of my ordination -- in 1970 --
when it was used as an anthem for the Eucharist. It was a bit
startling to me to think one might "taste" the Lord -- growing up Roman
Catholic in the 1950s, we were taught not to chew the Host, but to sort
of let it dissolve on the tongue, and enter us by osmosis or something.
It was supposed to be an "ethereal" and "spiritual"
experience, and the idea that it might also be a vivid sensory
experience was slightly psychedelic. This has served as a
fruitful source of meditation for me over the years -- a reminder of
the essential unity of soul and body, of the closeness of Heaven and
Earth.
Gnosticism, especially in its Manichean
(Augustinian, Calvinist) form emphasizes the gulf between God and
Creation -- between Heaven and (putatively evil) mere Earth. I grew up
with this as an undertone (Catholic Jansenism), and it took study and
reflection to see that this in not what Jesus and the Apostles taught,
at all.
In contrast to our intellectual, discursive view of
the faith (learned from the Greeks), which seeks to analyze and
categorize the world and the Faith -- and which, taken to extremes,
leads to a radical dualism, the Jewish outlook on life and our
relation to the Lord is very concrete and direct. The
Hebrew language is similarly concrete and direct -- it does not come
equipped with an ontology and a metaphysics, the way Greek does.
To the Hebrew mind, the Lord is intimately part of
the world, the here and now -- He is, as Dylan Thomas said, "... the
green fuze that drives the flower". He is not an absentee
landlord, an ethereal spirit in some incomprehensibly abstract
"heaven",
manipulating the world via hierarchies of proxies, but the One who
spoke directly to Abraham, to the Prophets, to Israel. Apart from
God, it is simply incomprehensible that anything whatever can exist.
In today's First Reading, Elijah is depressed -- he
has gotten cross-wise with King Ahab and Queen Jezabel, and everything
he has tried to do has been trashed. He had slain all the pagan
prophets, and now Jezabel was out to slay him.
He goes off to the wilderness, and sits down under a
tree and decides to starve himself to death. The Lord wasn't
quite through with him, though, and so along comes an "angel of the
Lord" and pokes him in the ribs, and says "Get up and eat".
We tend to think of angels as besing some sort of
supernatural critter, often with wings, and surrounded by an aura
humming with power. The Hebrew (and Greek) word, however, just
means "messenger" -- somebody sent on an errand. Thus the angel
who pokes Elijah and gets him to eat may have been a perfectly ordinary
Israelite, who was sent with ordinary bread and water to take care of
him, rather than an astral apparition.
Elijah takes it as a sign from the Lord, however,
and accepts the will of the Lord that he should eat, and be
strong. The messenger -- who or whatever he may have been -- was
taken at face value as bringing the Word of the Lord. God created
the heavens and the earth with a Word, and His Word is what we must
follow in the world.
Jesus, also, in today's Gospel, makes the point
about the Word being the "bread of life" -- that which underlies and
supports all of reality. He, himself is that Word -- the Word
made Flesh, as we affirm in the Creed -- and through Him and His flesh,
which we see and consume as bread in the Eucharist, we have eternal
life. It is in Him that we are saved -- by becoming one with Him
in the Eucharist, as He became a man -- one with us -- in the womb of
His mother.
We, being discursive Indo-European speakers, have
thought up all sorts of explanations of how that can be true -- that
God became man, that the ordinary bread and wine of the Eucharist
become the actual Body and Blood of Christ -- and hang tags like
"Incarnation" and "transubstantiation" on them -- as if that could
explain
them.
We need to return to our Hebrew roots, and see that
it is so simply because God says it. Jesus is God. He said
it is His Body and His Blood. Nothing more is needed.
By His Word, as He is the Word of the Father, all
things were made that were made, and without Him, nothing was
made. Likewise we are made one with Him by His Word: "I am
the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of
this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for
the life of the world is my flesh."
Let us then receive Him in the Eucharist today,
and praise Him . . .
In the Name of
the Father +
And of the Son
+
And of the
Holy Spirit +
Amen.
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