Saturday, May 10, 2014 3rd Week of Easter 1st Reading: Acts 9:31–42 Gospel: Jn 6:60–69
Many of Jesus’ followers said, “This language is very hard! Who can accept it?” Jesus was aware that his disciples were murmuring about this and so he said to them, “Does this offend you? Then how will you react when you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh cannot help. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. But among you there are some who do not believe.”From the beginning, Jesus knew who would betray him. So he added, “As I have told you, no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.” After this many disciples withdrew and no longer followed him. Jesus asked the Twelve, “Will you also go away?” Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We now believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
D@iGITAL…EXPERIENCE
Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life Experience
A joke is told of a mother who ordered her child to prepare food with this instruction: “Anak magsaing ka, isama mo na rin ang aso’t pusa”. The child took the instruction literally and threw the cat with the grains into the cooking pot. When the mother found out, she stared at her daughter in utter disbelief.
The child explained: “Sorry po hindi ko na naisama ang aso; di na magkasya sa kaldero”. If anybody plays this big joke in your kitchen you’ll get an idea of how disgust can fly too far away from what humans can imagine. Then you will understand why the Jews left in disgust when Jesus started offering his body as food to eat. The fact that Jesus did not reform his language to mitigate the adverse reaction of the public tells us that he wasn’t talking figuratively. He even said: “Unless you eat my body and drink my blood you will not have life within you.”
Today we have a better understanding of the profound mystery of Christ’s Body and Blood. Our problem is internalization. “Man is what he eats”, wrote Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach. Dog-eaters exhibit dog behaviors like barking and scratching on walls. Pork-eaters are as sleepy as pigs while fish patrons are as active as the fish they eat. Feuerbach’s statement is the perfect challenge to Mass-goers.
We should become what we eat at our Eucharistic banquets. As we eat his body at our Eucharistic tables we should become bread broken and shared to our brothers and sisters. The disgusting thing with Christianity is not that we are God-eating creatures but that after eating the flesh of God we devour each other in hatred and disdain. –Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
May comment ka ba sa column ni Father Dan? May tanong ka ba sa kanya?
I-type ang BANDERA REACT <message/ name/age/address> at i-send sa 4467.