April 19, 2024
As Saul was nearing Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He said, “Who are you, sir?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.” Acts_9:1-20
Jesus said to the crowd, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh 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.” Jn_6:52-59
If we wanted to teach a child, a grandchild, or even a great-grandchild, something that was truly important to their lives: How to live a happy life: How and why we should never hurt other people; Or, how to always make the very best choices in life, even when those choices may be extremely difficult, then we would want our teaching to be radically challenging: like telling them to get out of bed on the other side, even if they thought that there was a wall there, preventing them from ever being able to do such a thing; like telling them to eat human flesh or to drink blood, when for their whole lives, they thought that such things were forbidden or disgusting; or like, maybe in today’s world, telling them to give up their cell phones. Radically Challenging!
And then, there are those times, or those people who we simply know, just won’t listen. And it might take a little, “blinding light,” a little suffering, a little internal reflection, a little pride-demolishing humility, in order for them to finally be able to truly SEE. That teaching experience for them, has to be totally life changing if we ever want them to actually learn it, and to remember it for all time to come.
In our Bible Stories, we’re struck with images like those: of Adam, Eve and an apple, of Noah and a Flood, of Moses and the Red Sea, of little David and big Goliath, of Daniel in the lion’s den, and of Jesus walking on water. And we find that everyone from the most adamant atheist to the most pious Saint has heard those stories.
And we even hear cliches about them quoted around the world: “The writing’s on the wall,” just before you lose your job; the beautiful rainbow, that was changed from a sign of God’s love into a sign of Satan’s deception; And then, there’s that Number Sign, that has suddenly become the “hashtag,” a symbol that we, of the ‘sensibility generation’ don’t even want to venture a guess as to what that means. Sorry, I’m diverging.
But the point is, that, at only 30-years old, Jesus so fully understood this principle of what I’d call ‘shock teaching,’ that His examples of eating Body and drinking Blood, and of knocking someone off their high horse, are still remembered today, 2000-years later (not that I’m saying that anything that Jesus ever said or did was not absolutely true!)
Our take-home message, beloved, even in a world where next to nothing is shocking any more, is that, IF we truly want to know: how to live a happy life, if we truly want to know how not to indulge in feelings of hatred and revenge, and if we truly would love to know how to always make the right choices even when those choices may seem like life or death to us, then, our take-home IS, as Jesus tells us, to become ONE with our Father, with Jesus, and with the Holy Spirit in this Eucharist, this very best of thanksgiving celebrations, of eating the Body and drinking the Blood of Jesus Himself. Because, in reality, it’s only God who can endow us with that kind of wisdom.
You see, it’s not only good for our living, mortal souls, but, as Jesus teaches us, it is ESSENTIAL for our Eternal lives with Him. Like the blinding, cleansing, life-changing Light of St. Paul, our Jesus truly is: our Light of Life and our Light of Love in a world with such desperate needs for both.
jmp 4-19-24
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Whispers to the Wind 