I've been chuckling about signs or notices I’ve read during these so-called dog days of August. For example, on a repair shop door: “We can repair anything. Please knock—the bell doesn't work.” And a small town newspaper headline: “Tornado rips through cemetery; hundreds dead.” REALLY! And finally, two notices: one in a laundromat: “Please remove all your clothes when the light goes out.” And the other in an office: “After coffee break, empty the coffeepot and stand upside down on the counter.”
So if we're posting signs, proofread them carefully.
The word of God takes us back to the 13th century exodus or escape of the Hebrews from their oppressors in ancient Egypt. In this passage, the Hebrews are in the wilderness, hungry and thirsty, and whining and complaining to God. As an aside, whenever I have a tendency to whine, I think of the fella who stopped into a store to buy some energy bars. He chatted with the teenager who sold them; he seemed so happy. As the fella left, the teenager said, “it's nice to talk with folks like you. You see, I'm blind.” The fella said to himself, God forgive me when I whine. I'm blessed indeed. I have two eyes to see. The world is mine. But back to the word. Life with our oppressors in Egypt, the Hebrews say, was better than this life in the wilderness.
But God, always faithful to his promises, miraculously provides food: quails (probably some kind of low-flying migratory bird) and manna (probably a substance from a desert shrub).
Many Hebrews recognized in this wilderness “feeding” experience God’s incredible care for them. The author may be asking us whether we also recognize the signs of God’s care for us in our everyday lives.
Paul in his letter to the Christian community at Ephesus in Turkey speaks about us as new creatures who must die to the vices of the old self and live the virtues of the new self. God abides in us and we in God. Paul writes elsewhere that God has transformed us into living temples of God and calls us through the grace-filled waters of baptism to manifest the glory of God in our everyday lives.
Paul may be asking us whether we manifest the glory or presence of God in our everyday attitudes and behaviors.
In the Gospel according to John, the author highlights one of the seven “I am” sayings of Jesus: “I am the bread of life.” Elsewhere Jesus says: I am the light of the world; I am the good shepherd; the vine; the resurrection; the way, the truth, the life; the door to heaven. These “I am” phrases allude to the 3rd chapter in the Book of Exodus, where Moses asks God who He is. And God responds: “I am the One who causes to be everything that is.”
These “I am” sayings allude to Jesus’s divinity. Yes, the God-man Jesus, the bread of life, became one of us to satisfy our spiritual hunger for God.
A remarkable Jewish theologian named Abraham Heschel wrote: “I did not ask for success in life; I asked for wonder, and God gave it to me.” In fact, one of his books is titled “I Asked for Wonder.”
Today’s Gospel reflects on God’s most splendid gift of wonder, the wonder of wonders: the Eucharist.
The word of God alludes to three moments in our salvation history:
the 13th century Hebrew Exodus;
the 1st century passage of Jesus into glory;
and today's Eucharist.
Each of these three moments is an exodus, a departure, a going outward:
the escape of the Hebrews from Egypt;
Jesus’s passage from this earthly life through death into eternal glory;
and our own going out from today's Eucharistic celebration to our fellow human beings in community to serve.
The word of God references the escape of the Hebrews. It was the wonder of wonders. Their escape is a prototype of our liberation, our deliverance from death. Jews today in the Seder raise their cups to proclaim:
“It is our duty to thank, praise … and adore the God who did all of these miracles for our forebears and for ourselves. He has brought us forth … from darkness to a great light, and from subjection to redemption.”
Yes, the exodus is one critical historical moment in our salvation history.
A second critical historical moment is when Jesus at the Last Supper began his own exodus or passage from this earthly life through the darkness of death into a new, indescribable heavenly reality. And every Eucharist rekindles the expectation of our final deliverance: the Messiah will come again in glory. We pray in this Eucharist: “until He comes again.” And in the Our Father we ask “Thy kingdom come.”
A third critical moment in salvation history is today's Eucharist.
Jesus at the last supper washed the feet of the disciples--an example of service. As I have done, Jesus says, so must you do. Jesus acts out a gesture which we are to imitate in our lives: serving one another with our time, talents and treasure.
The bread we eat/the cup from which we drink are not simply for me alone; it is meant to create a more vibrant faith community. St. Paul wrote: “Because the bread is one, we, though many, are one Body; for we all partake of the one bread.” The living Christ who nourishes us sacramentally also nourishes us and our fellow parishioners. And the same living Christ also nourishes countless millions of missionary disciples around the globe.
Yes, the Eucharist challenges us to go outward into our community, to become, as best we can, what I would call “transformational agents.”
Just as Jesus Christ was an agent of transformation in salvation history, God calls us, his missionary disciples, to be his co-workers, agents of change for the better, in building up the kingdom of God until Jesus Christ comes again in glory at the end-time. We, as co-workers with God, have to do our best to transform prejudice into fairness, hate into peace, indifference into compassion, sorrow into joy, despair into hope, self-centeredness into other-centeredness, greed into generosity, and loneliness into community.
There are a hundred and one different ways to become “transformational agents” if we think about it.
One way to become such an agent in our homes, in our workplaces, in our parish, and in our neighborhood is to go out from this Eucharistic celebration today and keep on doing all the good we can, for all the people we can, as long as ever we can.
