Twenty-First Sunday In Ordinary Time, Cycle A--21st Sunday, Year B--The Eucharist

(1) What the Eucharist is not—Cannibalism.

Two men who lived in a small town got into a terrible dispute that they could not resolve. So, they decided to talk to the wisest man in town.

The first man went to the house of the wise man and told him his version of what happened. When he finished, the sage said, "You are absolutely right."

The following night, the second man approached the sage and told him his version of events. The sage replied: "You are absolutely right."

Later, the sage's wife rebuked her husband. He said, “Those two men told you two different stories and you told them they were absolutely right. That's impossible - they can't both be absolutely right. " The sage turned to his wife and said, "You are absolutely right."

What a wise man!

But there seem to be many people in the world unable to make a definitive decision except Jesus.

Some followers said, “This way of speaking is intolerable and since then, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life--That verse is John 6:66. I call it Satan’s Six Pack.

This is the only time in Scripture where people left Jesus for a doctrinal reason.

2). What the Eucharist is—Some musings…

In the Eucharist, Jesus inaugurated a new mode of presence in “Lord’s supper” (1 Cor 11:20)

or the “breaking of the bread” (Acts 2:42,46)

Our spiritual hunger is a form of consciousness. A spirituality capable of meeting this hunger is the Eucharist.

We worship God by loving God "with all [y]our heart, with all [y]our soul, with all [y]our strength" (Deut 6:5; Matt 4:10).

This is much more than an act of will, more than simply choosing God before all others in our lives (Deut 5:6)

.

It is an acknowledgment and response that emerges from and expresses the intimate core of our being. As such it involves all that we are in accepting God as worthy and first in our lives.

In worship of the Eucharist, we acknowledge the Love that sustains our spirit and our relationships. We are lifted out of the small and defensive world of our ego to be awakened to the all-inclusive intimacy of God's kingdom. We are meant to love as we are loved.

We are plunged into the paschal mystery of Christ, the dying and rising that was his because it is necessary to all human transformation.

Our surrender is our graced participation in Christ's great act of thanksgiving, Worship, contemplation, and mission. Amen.

[source: Ken Sedlak, Liturgical Ministry, 18 no 4 Fall 2009, p 191-195.]