Proverbs 9.1-6/ Ps.145.10+11,13ab+14,15+16/ Ephesians 5.15-20/ John 6.51-58
Indeed, one of the many ways to fill our insufficiency/lack of knowledge on how to live Christian life is to share our daily life experiences with people of the same faith and same values. The basic formula is that we learn from others and others learn also from us. We can also enlarge/extend our tents by sharing with others of different faith too. We were encouraged/invited last week to share with one another our individual experiences/moments of being saved when in the verge of giving-up our faith and Christian values. Responding to this similar invitation is another way to know and learn more of the reality of Christian living.
Today we are still within the series of readings and discourse about the “Living Bread from Heaven.” This time, we will come to understand that Jesus, while declaring that He, the “Living Bread from Heaven,” offers eternal life through His Body & Blood promising eternal life in Heaven. “…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you.” In here, let us first consider a kind of invitatory and invocatory message from our first reading today. The reading mentions about abandoning folly characterized by being naive (lack of information) and senseless. In doing so, we will take courage to embrace life of understanding. The mystery of the Holy Eucharist for example is not something we can just and simply bring to classroom discussion to be able to find it`s meaning in our daily life. So the reading from the book of Proverbs today introduces procurement of wisdom against shallow understanding and senseless discussion.
So the basic invitation for each one of us today is to reflect upon how to live wisely… and maybe wiser!? While we are being invited to, we are invited to live spiritually at the same time. Paul encourages the Ephesians not to continue in ignorance but understand the Will of the Father for them. Extreme indulgence in bodily and sexual pleasures destroys life in the Spirit. The Ephesians were further encouraged to communicate through psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
Even if we seemingly are enjoying what we have been so engrossed up to this day, we end up finding ourselves so empty, We find our lives lack of meaning. We are all therefore invited to re-focus our hearts and minds to the “Life-Giving Bread,” and continue to gather in wherein Jesus, the Christ is the center.