John 6;51-58. Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. August 19th, 2018
Today in our first reading from Proverbs we are told that “Wisdom has built a house, she has set up her seven columns…(Prv 9;1) The House that Wisdom has built is the Holy Catholic Church. In Her, we can receive all the instruction we need on how to live a virtuous life, a life of faith that leads to happiness, to flourishing and so to salvation and eternal life. In Her we receive as well, the strength we need in order to life this abundant life through Her Seven Columns, that is, through the Seven Sacraments in which we receive not only the gifts of the Holy Spirit but also the very Person of the Holy Spirit in order to lead us into Divine Love.
In this Household, uncreated Wisdom-who is Jesus Himself, has taken flesh by created wisdom-the Blessed Virgin Mary. And Jesus has set forth Bread and Wine in order to become a sacred feast, in which ordinary bread and the wine become His true flesh and His true blood that He took from the same Virgin Mary.
At this Sacred Feast is present as well the Martyrs whose blood is mingled with the Precious Blood of Jesus through their faithful witness of Him and His Household-the Church, as well as their faithful witness to her Seven Columns and Sacred Feast, even unto the shedding of their own blood—this is the wine that Wisdom has mixed.
The Seven Columns of the Household rest upon 12 foundational Pillars; and by these Foundational Pillars which are, better yet, who are the 12 Apostles and their successors, that is the bishops and priests, the invitation from mouth of Divine Wisdom goes out over the city, that is out over the city of mankind; it is an invitation to come into the House of God and share in the Sacred Feast.
Through the Pastors of the Household of the Church this invitation to “come, eat of my food and drink of the wine I have mixed,” is sent forth to the ends of the earth, so that no one might plead ignorance by not “forsaking foolishness that you may live; (and) advance in the way of understanding.”
Only the children can come, that is only the childlike, who live not in the foolishness of the pleasures of this world alone, but instead live as children of God, innocent and pure, with ordered lives: lives lived with integrity of faith; that is, lived with faithfulness to the all the Commandments and teachings of God Himself contained in their fullness in this same Household of Wisdom—the Holy Church, in and through which all men can still be taught by God Himself.
Here, in this Household of faith, we do not receive ordinary food, we do not receive ordinary bread and wine which is merely assimilated into man, into our flesh and blood. No, here we receive at Holy Communion the true Food from Heaven in which man is assimilated into the Bread of Life, into Jesus, that is into God Himself.
Consequently, if we do not feed on the bread of life, if we do not in faith, while adoring trusting and loving Him, feed on His flesh, if we do not feed on Jesus, then even though we may be alive physically, we do not have life in us and we are deader than dead.
The Holy Eucharist can only be understood in the knowledge of Love; in the knowledge of the love that God has for each of us; in the knowledge that He, who is Love itself, has truly come in the flesh, and has suffered, died and resurrected in order to be able to continue to come in the flesh and give us Himself as our true food so that we may live intimately in Him, now and forever. It is consuming this God who is Love truly present in the flesh in the Holy Eucharist, that we can be consumed and become united in love with Him, but again not before we truly Believe, Adore, Hope and love Him in the Holy Eucharist and offer ourselves and our all to Him in return. Only Love can understand how it is possible that Jesus gives us himself as our true Food and our true Drink.
In the light of this great truth-the Mystery of our Faith, may our faith in the Catholic Church, the Household made by Wisdom, and our faith in her Seven Sacraments, especially the Most Blessed of these Sacraments which is the Holy Eucharist who is Divine Wisdom Himself-Jesus, may our faith lead others to the Sacred Banquet, the Holy Mass, may our faithful witness lead all the little Children to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist where He waits for them as a prisoner of Love.
Jesus in the Holy Eucharist says, let the little Children come unto me, do not hinder them. In order to not hinder them, in order for us not to be a stumbling block for them, let us turn to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Let us ask her as well to help us to increase our faith, hope, and love so that we will not let anyone or anything take us away from the Holy Eucharist, away from Jesus. Wrapped in Her heavenly mantle (as symbolized by wearing of the Brown Scapular) we will be able to not let any scandal, any Judas priest or bishop or any other unfaithful member of the Household, or any unbeliever outside of It, take us away from the Bread of Life and so away from His Sacred Feast which is the Holy Sacrificed of the Mass; for unless they repent, it would be better that they would never have been born (cf. Mt. 26:24).
In the Household of God, the Holy Catholic Church there has been and always will be scandals, great and small, but woe to those by whom scandal comes to this Household built by Wisdom. For those who hurt the little ones through these scandals, through these grave mortal sins, and so cause any of these same little ones to leave the Household of faith, to leave the Holy Eucharist, who is Jesus still among us in the flesh for our Food, it would be better for them to have a great millstone fastened around their neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea (Mt. 8;6).
