+ We have two wonderful readings at mass today: in the
first reading we see an angel of the Lord visiting Philip and telling him to
take a certain route and no other – and along the way the Spirit said to Philip
to catch up to someone riding in another chariot. Inside that chariot was an Ethiopian
eunuch who was reading the prophet Isaiah. Philip stopped the coach, got in and
said: Do you understand what you are reading. The young boy said no: “How can
I, I don’t have anyone to explain it to me!” Then, Philip launched into the
Proclamation of the Good News! In reaction, when the eunuch saw water on the
side of the road, he said to Philip: what is stopping me from being baptized
right here, right now? Philip said: “Nothing” So he baptized the eunuch and a
transformed life for the eunuch took root and began to grow!
In the gospel passage we see a
similar kind of scene, if we look hard – In this Bread of Life Discourse: Jesus
speak of himself as the Bread from Heaven, and he who could bestow eternal life
on any who would simply believe it. Jesus then explains the Eucharist to any
who were curious – and they were curious and many came to believe. In our day
in age, it is the priest who explains to us what we could otherwise not even
imagine: imagine this: bread becoming the substance of Jesus’ body, and the
wine, his blood. Why? so that we could eat and drink it, yes, eat and drink
GOD, not so that we could assimilate him, but so that he could intimately and
deeply assimilate us more into him. It’s not magic, but it is very real, very comforting
and very powerful, with power to purify our motivations, our minds, our
personalities, our bodies. Then we can go out from this mass and put into
practice, with God’s internal spiritual battery-boost, what we have learned and
come to know there.
Amen, I say to you: I draw you
to my Father, - be taught by him, and satiated by me! And you will live happily
here, and blissfully hereafter! I promise.
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