Weekly Reading, Sunday August 19, 2012

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Reading 1 Prv 9:1-6

Wisdom has built her house,
she has set up her seven columns;
she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine,
yes, she has spread her table.
She has sent out her maidens; she calls
from the heights out over the city:
“Let whoever is simple turn in here;
To the one who lacks understanding, she says,
Come, eat of my food,
and drink of the wine I have mixed!
Forsake foolishness that you may live;
advance in the way of understanding.”

The seven pillars of wisdom may be: Purity, Peacefulness, Gentleness, Reasonableness, Helpfulness, Humility, and Sincerity. The seven liberal arts are Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy. None of the seven liberal arts are worth anything without the seven pillars of wisdom.

Throughout the ages, the Holy Spirit sends angels calling to those who are simple and seek understanding. His promise of understanding to those who eat His food and drink His wine is an early version of Christ’s offering His body and Blood to we who seek deeper understanding in the ages since Christ.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7

R. (9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Catholic Fundamentalists hope we are not sinning when we mentally insert a comma between “taste” and “see”. We sometimes read it, “Taste, and see the goodness of the Lord.” His goodness is not apparent without eating His Body and drinking His Blood.

Reading 2 Eph 5:15-20

Brothers and sisters:
Watch carefully how you live,
not as foolish persons but as wise,
making the most of the opportunity,
because the days are evil.
Therefore, do not continue in ignorance,
but try to understand what is the will of the Lord.
And do not get drunk on wine, in which lies debauchery,
but be filled with the Spirit,
addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts,
giving thanks always and for everything
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.

We are warned to be wise, doing what we can to get closer to God and goodness because there is evil all around. We are also told not to continue in ignorance, so, we should “eat the bread of wisdom” and of Christ. We should steer clear of drunkenness, which leads to “un”wisdom and greater sin. Instead, we should fill ourselves with the spirit of Wisdom, in our age, The Holy Spirit. We are to be respectful to each other, holy in our behavior, always thinking of how we appear to God and working to be before Him in a better light. Finally, we are to be thankful to God the Father through Christ, His Son, our Lord. Thus is the Trinity manifested in this passage.

Gospel Jn 6:51-58

Jesus said to the crowds:
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the world.”

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the Fesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food,
and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me
will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

This passage sums up all we need to know. If we take Communion in The Catholic Church, we eat His Body, and we drink His Blood. We will live forever. We will remain in The Body of Christ and He will remain in us. Our relationship with Him becomes the same as His relationship with the Son.

Our ancestors ate manna, bread from Heaven. Unlike them, who ate that bread and still died, whoever eats My Body and drinks My Blood will live forever.

Reading 1 Prv 9:1-6

Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7

Reading 2 Eph 5:15-20

Gospel Jn 6:51-58

Related:

What “New Word” have Catholics invented? Why?

Today’s Reading: Five Sentences tell us to “Be as Catholic as we can.”

Jesus: Son of God. Servant of God. God.