WORD ALIVE
A lawyer- friend once related to me that their father inherited the weak heart of their grandfather. The three doctors he consulted warned him that when he would reach 50, his children had better prepare for his early demise. Father and mother went regularly to pray to the Holy Family Image and attended extra Masses and the Perpetual Help novena on Wednesdays. “I know this when I was a boy because I accompanied them,” he said.
“My grandfather died at the age of 82 while the two doctors died earlier except the last doctor who was younger then!”
The prayers showed the power of the Lord who could do what humans, doctors, scientist could not do.
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In the gospel of this 19th Sunday, Jesus speaks of his other qualification. “I am the bread which came down from heaven,” he said addressing the Jewish crowd. But they raised their eyebrows, saying: “This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?” (Jn 6,60).
Prior to this episode, the Jews had been very much impressed by Jesus' words and actions, so much so that they had gone to great lengths to seek him out wherever he went.
But afterwards, some were having second thoughts. How can he talk like that? Don’t we know his parents and relatives? How could he have dropped down from Heaven?
Nevertheless, to his detractors Jesus says, “I have come down from Heaven. God the Father has sent me to bring you to eternal life.”
Jesus knows that if they close their minds to his teaching, then the Holy Spirit cannot draw them towards his word.
For instance, on the married state, how many couples — so ideally suited we thought — are having trouble staying together, while the “miss-matched” defy all predictions and are happily married! Or, how many “bad” kids grow up and become successful, while their talented classmates cannot find a place in life?
Does it have something to do with human wisdom, with intellectual pride? In the case of Jesus and the skeptical Jews, the Eucharist is the issue. It was a confrontation between human and divine wisdom. Human judgment declares it as a mere bread. Divine judgment, however, declares: “The bread that I give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
Do you have problems and worries about the world, your family, your religion and society? Don't rely on your own wisdom alone. As Fr. Bruno Hagspiel, SVD quipped in his book: “Swallowing one’s pride occasionally has never caused anyone indigestion.”
We sometimes encounter accidents, endure disappointments or suffer tragedies. By ourselves alone, we cannot survive. That’s why we need a higher power, spiritual energy, and prayer. That’s the power Jesus Christ who gives us his Body and Blood in the Eucharist.
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Prayer: Lord, may we be humble enough to believe what You say even if it is sometimes hard to understand. May we not rely on our wisdom alone but on Your judgment. Amen.
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