In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
My dearly beloved in Our Lord,
Today’s Mass teaches us to live by the spirit, not by the flesh. “For the letter killeth, but the spirit quickeneth” (2Cor 3:6).
Certainly whatever is reported in Holy Scripture as an historical fact, is a fact; these things really happened. But very often these historical events also have a spiritual meaning, as St Paul states in the Epistle with regards to Abraham’s two wives: “Which things are said by an allegory.” (Gal 4:24) While we believe the historical truth of the events, the spiritual, mystical or allegorical meaning is, practically speaking, more important for our life.
Although there are many lessons that we can draw from Holy Scripture for ourselves, only the spiritual sense accepted by the Church has authentic value.
By the miracle of the multiplication of bread, Our Lord wants to teach the crowd – and us – that he is the true bread of life, as he will explain in the rest of ch. 6, following today’s Gospel. He was born in Bethlehem, which translates as “the house of bread”. He is the true bread of life: “And Jesus said to them: I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger: and he that believeth in me shall never thirst.” (v.35) In ch.4 he had taught a woman at Jacob’s well in Sichar, in Samaria, in a similar way, as we heard last Friday: “Jesus answered, and said to her: Whosoever drinketh of this water, shall thirst again; but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him, shall not thirst for ever: But the water that I will give him, shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into life everlasting. The woman saith to him: Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come hither to draw.” (vv.13-15)
Almost infallibly we fall short in understanding what Our Lord says and teaches us. In as far as we are still very carnal, unduly attached to things of earth, our soul finds it difficult to lift itself up to the higher spheres of understanding. The Samaritan woman realized how practical it would be to have water which quenches your thirst for good. The crowd wanted to make Our Lord their king so that they would not have to worry about food… Often enough we petition Our Lord with regards to relatively unimportant things – and fail to see the greater picture, that of the necessity to save our soul.
In Our Lord’s prayer, the first three petitions concern God. The first petition which concerns us reads: “Give us this day our daily bread”. The old saying: “Primum vivere, deinde philosophare – Live first, then care about philosophy” has some truth to it since we cannot subsist for any length of time without food; and someone who constantly needs to worry about feeding himself, has no time or energy for things spiritual. For a Christian worthy of that name, the first concern must be the well-being of the soul. The body and its well-being must be secondary. Therefore Our Lord makes us to ask him to feed our soul, in the first place, when we pray: “Give us this day our daily bread”. He must be the life and the sustenance of our soul, for he is everything, and everything is in him and through him: “Per ipsum… et in ipso” (Canon of the Mass). In the Holy Eucharist Christ comes to us through the physical reality of the bread, ie. the accidentals of bread. These accidentals contain the reality of Christ’s divinity and humanity, the author of grace. The sacramental reality of Holy Communion has for its purpose not the feeding of our body, but the nourishment of the soul.
Another reality which we are tempted to understand poorly, or wrongly, is that of Jerusalem which is mentioned quite a few times today (Introit, Epistle, Tractus, Communion). If we look at the geographical site, the “city of peace” has been turned into a place of terror and unrest in the 20th and 21st centuries; it does not even deserve its name anymore. But this is not what Holy Scripture means, at least not primarily. Holy Church means the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of everlasting rest and peace, Heaven. Also it is the reality of God’s indwelling in the justified soul! Our soul must be a place where God rests and lives, a temple of the Holy Ghost, a living Tabernacle.
It is therefore not anachronistic or cynical that today, in the middle of Lent, Holy Church speaks of food, in the Gospel and also in the Postcommunion: “… your sacrament, which ever fills us to overflowing…” Just as the veiling of the Crucifix and of Holy Images next Sunday incites us to better reflect on the divine and invisible realities shown by these representations, Lent has for its sole purpose to make us to better realize what our true food must be: Christ and the divine life of grace merited by his sacred Passion and Death. The purpose of penance is for us to realize in how bad and dangerous condition we find ourselves as sinners; and to draw us away from our sinful habits. We need to “fast from sins”, as Holy Church expresses itself again and again, during these holy days.
“Quaerite primum… Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Mt 6:33) First things first; let us get our priorities right. Then all these things i.e. everything else, according to our needs and God’s good pleasure, shall be given to us, freely, as the Heavenly Father naturally gives food to the birds of the air and beauty to the lilies of the valley (cf. Mt 6:26-30). Through fast and abstinence, through prayer and alms-giving let us seek nothing else but to please God; to make up for His offended glory and majesty; for our many sins; to please God Who has first loved us; and to pay back His infinite love!
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Nema komentara:
Objavi komentar