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AND SO IT BEGINS…
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This weekend is the “prelude,” so to speak, of the 5-Sunday “interlude” into our Cycle from Mark, when we add 5 Sundays’ worth of the Gospel of John, chapter 6—the “Bread of Life” discourse. We do this, in part, because Mark’s Gospel is too short to cover all of a year’s worth of “Ordinary Time.” But there’s more to it than that, especially for us this year.
The Archdiocese of Mobile is celebrating the “Year of the Eucharist and of the Parish,” and there can be no better time than this for an extra “insert” on the reality of the Eucharist for us as Catholics. It is, after all, the center of our worship, and the “source and summit” of our spiritual life, as Vatican II teaches us.
Additionally, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops recently approved the production of a document on the Eucharist—it’ll be worked over and then voted on in November. The discussion about this document has been heavily publicized for the apparent desire of some bishops to make it a direct accusation of the political posture of President Biden; others see it as crucial given the falling away of many Catholics from Sunday Eucharist in the wake of the COVID pandemic. And, sadly, the idea of the Real Presence has been eroding in Catholic belief circles for longer than this. If the Eucharist is in fact the core of our worship and our faith, this is a serious crisis.
But the 5-week period of John 6 will give pastors like me the opportunity to express the depth and beauty and truth of the Catholic belief in this Blessed Sacrament—something held and taught “from the beginning.” I’ll try to make that clearer in the next weeks. But there is an important aspect to this weekend’s “prelude” that I don’t want folks to miss.
Jesus saw the crowds, and He saw their needs. So what did He do? He taught them. This reminds us that physical needs are important, but other needs (for truth, for beauty, for goodness) are central and crucial. We need both, but the latter are the more important. Jesus understands this; He teaches; He’ll feed; He’ll give us the ultimate spiritual food which is Himself—a gift of total love, of total gift of self to us.
Much more will come in the next weeks, but this much is essential--to quote and amplify the Responsorial Psalm: “The hand of the Lord feeds us [totally]; He answers all our needs [even those we didn’t know we had].”
