20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

08-18-2024Weekly ReflectionFr. Aruldoss

Dear people of God,

Good morning to you. You are cordially invited to St. Boniface, Waumandee for our Fall Festival. It is going to be on this Sunday (18th August 2024 Sunday). Lots of fun activities are available. You are welcome.

On this twentieth Sunday, the readings call us to live with wisdom and to seek true nourishment from Jesus, the Bread of Life, and live in a way that pleases God.

The first reading from Proverbs invites us to leave behind foolishness and choose the way of understanding. Wisdom offers us true life and fulfillment. God who himself is Wisdom, invites us to his banquet. However, only the humble can appreciate and take advantage of this invitation. Those who are wise only according to the standard of this world cannot understand this mystery. The Eucharist is a special banquet where Christ is both the giver and the gift. Also, He is both the priest and the sacrificial lamb.

In today’s gospel when Christ said: "I am the living bread come down from heaven, anyone who eats this bread will live forever", the Jews became enraged. The reason is simple. They were full of pride and lacked true wisdom. They knew the family of Jesus and His profession. They could not comprehend what Christ meant. They refused to be humbled, in order to become wise in the ways of God.

Only intelligent and thoughtful people see and encounter Christ in the Holy Eucharist. They are the ones who do not doubt that Christ is the living bread of life and is present in the Holy Eucharist. They respond to God's invitation to have life and real wisdom. They know that it is the will of God that we should have life in its fullness. They know that this fullness of life is in Christ, the living bread of life. No reason is good enough not to accept the life that Jesus freely offers us through the Eucharist. So, let us humble ourselves to heed this very important call from God.

All we need to do is to work on those obstacles that prevent us from receiving the body and blood of Christ. If you still doubt, ask God to illuminate your mind so that you will doubt no more. If you have sinned, seek counsel and reconciliation with Christ through the Sacrament of Penitence. Have a Happy Sunday!

Yours in Christ