19 August 2018
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jesus said to them, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him.” (Jn 6:56)
The word of God, set before us today by the Church, our Mother, proclaims to us three beautiful images of union with the Lord. In the first reading from the book of Proverbs, Wisdom is depicted as a bountiful queen who has built a house and set out a feast and she cries out inviting guests to abandon their empty foolishness and be filled with her rich understanding. How beautifully this depiction points us to the Lord who not only blesses us, but who invites us to remain with Him, to dwell with Him, ever enjoying the goodness of His Wisdom and Love.
St. Paul’s admonition to the Ephesians also calls us to seek union with the Lord, again, by forsaking the foolishness which leaves us empty (in this case immoderate consumption of alcohol), and to instead be filled with what truly fulfills our hearts’ desires, the Spirit. The indication that we are allowing the Spirit to dwell in us is that we “try to understand what is the will of the Lord.” (Eph 5:17) Allowing the Lord to dwell in our hearts, to make of us His dwelling, to fill us, necessarily implies that we seek to want what He wants. What would it mean for the Spirit to fill our hearts otherwise? Those who are in love seek to know what their beloved desires, so that they may seek it too. So it is with those who want to be united to God, they make efforts to know what God desires, so that they may seek it too. They want their hearts to be one with Christ’s heart.
These images of dwelling with Wisdom and being filled by the Spirit then help us to understand today’s Gospel and the Sacrament of the Eucharist more and more. To enter into union with Christ we ought to consume and be consumed by Him in receiving His Body and Blood in the Eucharist. However, just as the one who comes to the house of Wisdom is not to simply visit a moment and then leave, and just as the one who is truly filled by the Spirit allows the Spirit’s grace to permeate even the wants and desires of his heart, so too the one who receives Christ in the Sacred Host should not have Jesus simply touch his body. We are far more than merely a body! Rather, we should allow the Sacrament to nourish our hearts and our minds spiritually, just as surely as the Host passes our lips materially. This week, let us beg the Lord who feeds us with His Body and Blood for the grace to dwell with Him as He dwells with us, to have our hearts be inflamed by the fire which dwells in His heart, so that we may desire what He desires and truly do His Will.