First Reading Commentary
Saints Augustine and Ignatius teach that
the house wisdom has built is the Church.
And at this house, Saint Gregory adds, is where all instruction, the
seven sacraments, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit are received.
The “seven columns” are symbolic and are
meant to show the strength and stability of true wisdom which comes from the
Church; there is also, however, a mystical dimension to the number seven such
as the seven sacraments and the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The Fathers of the Church explain the meat,
wine and table to mean the table of our Lord which offers His precious Body and
Blood.
“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!” Saint Augustine
explains this passage with these words: “Uncreated Wisdom took Flesh of the
Blessed Virgin, prepared the table of bread and wine, as Priest according to
the order of Melchizedek, and chose the weak of this world to confound the
strong.”
The final verse is the Church’s instruction
to forsake the wisdom of the world, which is nothing more than “foolishness,”
and come to receive the true wisdom of our God which brings peace because true
wisdom enables one to look beyond suffering and see a future of eternal joy.
Second Reading Commentary
For the most part, practicing Christians
have an understanding of what is right and wrong, moral and immoral, God’s way
and the way of the world; but the fragrance of this knowledge is a healthy
prayer life lest this gift of wisdom should become stagnant and fall prey to
evil. A good prayer life rewards with an
ardent awareness of God’s Presence.
Practicing Catholics believe in the Real
Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist; but today there seems to be an invisible
dividing line among those believers. On
one side are those who simply believe and accept the Church's teaching on the
Eucharist. But on the other side are
those who are head over heels in love with the Eucharist. Why does this difference exist? Surely the latter cannot see Jesus under the
guise of bread and wine - or can they?
Maybe not in the physical sense but God created humanity to be receptacles
of His love and a vibrant prayer life opens the soul's gate and permits God's
love to gush; and this torrential love of God radiates immensely from the
Eucharist.
Saint Peter Julian Eymard, called the
apostle of the Eucharist by Pope Saint John XXIII, once wrote: "To pray is to glorify the infinite goodness
of God. It is to set divine mercy into action, to delight in and release the
infinite love of God for us."
Saint Paul closes this Reading with a
description of the daily life of the Church; and more specifically the Church’s
daily liturgical life which is both the Mass and the Divine Office.
Gospel Commentary
This Gospel opens with a very important
point: Our boundless God condescended to be among us, to offer us His very
Self, and His gift of Self rewards us with eternal life. Not even a multilingual person could find the
words that would do justice for such an unfathomable act of love and humility.
Jesus states that His Flesh and Blood are
“true Food” and “true Drink”; and whoever partakes of this Food and Drink will
have eternal life. The Greek text uses
the word "alethos" for “true”
which more accurately means "indeed" or "without a doubt";
Jesus continues by saying: “Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has
eternal life.” Again in the Greek
version the word used for "eat" is "trogo" which really means "chew". Thus it seems obvious that our Lord is not
even remotely suggesting that His Body and Blood take on a symbolic
significance; instead He is scandalously attaching to His words a very literal
meaning. After consuming the Eucharist, Christ's Body and Blood dwell within us.
How appropriate the words of our Blessed
Mother when she visited Elizabeth: "Magnificat
anima mea Dominum, et exsultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo - My
soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!" Our Blessed Lady at that time also had Jesus
dwelling within her. After receiving our
Eucharistic Lord in a state of grace, somewhere floating around in our
meditation is the mind boggling, overwhelming reality of being living and
breathing tabernacles. Who can begin to
explain this display of love for such undeserving creatures?
Thus our Almighty, ever-living God humbled
Himself and became Man to freely offer Himself “for the life of the world” but
still maintained His unprecedented Divine power by seeing fit that His Eucharistic
Self would sustain us forever.
