You meet a thousand times in life with those who, in dealing with any religious question, make at once their appeal to reason, and insist on forthwith rejecting aught that lies beyond its sphere, without however being able to render any clear account of the nature and proper limits of the knowledge thus derived, or of the relation in which such knowledge stands to the religious needs of people. I would invite you, therefore, to inquire seriously whether such persons
are not really bowing down before an idol of the mind, which, while itself of very questionable worth, demands as much implicit faith from its worshipers as divine revelation itself.
- Theodor Christlieb (1833-1889), Modern Doubt and Christian Belief
(Reason knows what it knows and
if well-trained acknowledges what it does not and cannot know. How do faith and reason "get along" in your mind?) |
ACTS 9:1-20; PS 117:1BC, 2
JN 6:52-59
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
"How can this man
give us his Flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them,
"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.
For my Flesh is true food,
and my Blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life
because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever."
These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Reflection on the
Scriptures |
Today’s
gospel is one of the most powerful passages in the book of John. Jesus challenges us with a radical claim about his flesh and blood. For some, this claim will make no sense. Some may even feel duty-bound to resist such a claim, perhaps turning it into a metaphor or otherwise marginalizing it. But when the beauty and truth of the Eucharist is revealed to us, this new paradigm resonates deeply. It is also deeply embedded in the living faith of Christianity, which has
been passed down to us in this present day, and which we will continue to transmit until the last generation. Thanks be to God.
- by Edward Morse Revelations of Divine
Love - by Julian of Norwich
Thirteenth Revelation, Chapter 37
“In every soul that shall be saved is a Godly Will that never assented to sin, nor ever shall.”—”For failing of Love on our part, therefore is all our travail”
GOD brought to my mind that I should sin. And for pleasance that I had in beholding
of Him, I attended not readily to that shewing; and our Lord full mercifully abode, and gave me grace to attend. And this shewing I took singularly to myself; but by all the gracious comfort that followeth, as ye shall see, I was learned to take it for all mine even-Christians: all in general and nothing in special: though our Lord shewed me that I should sin, by me alone is understood all.
And
therein I conceived a soft dread. And to this our Lord answered: I keep thee full surely. This word was said with more love and secureness and spiritual keeping than I can or may tell. For as it was shewed that [I] should sin, right so was the comfort shewed: secureness and keeping for all mine even-Christians.
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