Bread of heaven

 

This is what I received from the Lord, and in turn passed on to you: that on the same night that he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread, and thanked God for it and broke it, and he said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this as a memorial of me.’ In the same way he took the cup after supper, and said, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.’ Until the Lord comes, therefore, every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming to his death.

1 Corinthians 11:23 - 26

Gathering around the meal table to share food and good company is something we all like to do – with family, friends and colleagues. Eating is a fundamental activity for living organisms. Failure to eat means a failure to thrive, and an organism will quickly die. Our children are utterly dependent on us to provide food and nourishment. It is little wonder then that when we reflect on our relationship with the Divine, that we talk food.

Our ancestors, both Hebrew and non-Hebrew used sacrifice to express their relationship with their God/gods. While these relationships might be terribly complex, in essence, the gods were placated or swayed by sacrifices of crops and stock. They may have sought rain, fertility, safety from their enemies or victory, long life or a successful harvest. The First (or Old) Testament is rich is its recollection of stories of sacrifice, most memorably Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Isaac. In return God will provide, just as he provided manna in the desert to Moses.

This food relationship is embedded in our Christian story too. Jesus’ feeding of the 5000 (counting only the men) is about God’s bounty, he feeds those who listen to his Word. Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ – by this, meaning our spiritual nourishment through the Eucharist, yes, but also by providing the faithful with real food through bountiful harvests, flocks and herds. It is in the Last Supper that Jesus declares that the bread and wine he offers to his disciples are indeed his own body and blood. In John’s Gospel (6:51f) Jesus provocatively advises: ‘I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever.’

In much the same way that sacrificed food might be consumed as part of a covenant with God, so it is in John’s view that God is himself present in and through the consumption of this living bread. God provides both the physical and spiritual elements.

A critical part of our mission is to make the links between the ordinary and necessary food of our daily lives and our need and desire to share in the heavenly Eucharistic bread. There is such extraordinary richness to our celebration of the Eucharist that there are many in our communities of faith - including youth and children - who have never tapped into, nor ever seen beyond the ritual of the elders/elderly to the true wonder of God and man at table.

This coming Sunday is the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi).

Peter Douglas

 

WHAT DO WE CALL GOD?

                                                                                                                     

By Kevin Bates SM OAM

This weekend we celebrate a central expression of our Catholic Faith as we mark the Feast of the Blessed Trinity. One God, three Persons relating equally with each other, the mystery that has engaged some of the greatest minds over the centuries, can still be a puzzle for us lesser lights as we try and get our limited minds around it all.

Perhaps our best response can be found not by trying to solve the mystery as if it were some kind of puzzle, but by engaging with the overflowing love who is God. This love is so complete, so all-embracing, that it cannot help spilling over beyond itself.

The love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit express for us this sound instinct that Love cannot be caught up in its own self. Love needs to go somewhere, to be shared, celebrated and expand beyond itself, otherwise it would not be love at all.

Central to our belief in the Blessed Trinity, is that this God who is Love, is all about relationships, and the doctrine of the Trinity is a most beautiful expression of this belief.

We do not relate to a God who is some kind of anonymous cosmic force. Nor do we relate to God as the source of what we often call “good values.” These values can also be found in the great religious books of all major traditions.

What is unique to our faith is that we are in relationship with a God who loves unconditionally, expressed in the love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, extended to each of us who are baptized into the intimate life of the Trinity.

In recent times we have become more sensitized to the use of language that excludes, especially the language that excludes women. This is a worthy concern. In my own song-writing I have been aware of this since being alerted to it in the mid 1980’s and have found inclusive ways to refer to God which still express a loving relationship with God.

We have to be a bit careful here in the use of our language about God, for in attempting to be inclusive of all people, we can reduce God to a functionary rather than a Lover.

A recent media report speaks of a number of Catholic Girls’ Schools in Queensland who have removed the use of the word “Father” from their prayers and replaced it with words such as “Creator”. While we can understand the purpose of such a change of language, a warning bell rings, telling us that we may be moving away from a faith that expresses intimate love, to an ideology that simply admires who God is.

This is a discussion that is well worth having and exploring. It is important that we engage in this discussion grounded in the Love of God and each other rather than in some hard-edged position which may be born of willfulness rather than love.

St Thomas Aquinas notes that anything we can say about God using our own wits, can only be by way of analogy. In other words, the best we can do is to say what God is like, what God is not and that God is more than!

Speaking of God as Father as Jesus so often does, is familial, tender, intimate and relational. Referring to God as Creator instead doesn’t cut the mustard! The very human analogy, “Father”, gives us an inkling of what God is like and gives us someone with whom we can relate. Pope John Paul 1 wrote a reflection in which he refers to God as “Mother,” offering another image that can draw us into the heart of God. Such relational images leave room for faith and imagination.

So, as we celebrate this sacred encounter with the God Who is Love, we continue to seek engaging ways of expressing this relationship in our fast-changing world.

Father Kevin