Sunday Sermon for August 18, 2024, the Twentieth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B
Readings: Prov 9:1-6; Eph 5:15-20; Jn 6:51-58
In the second reading, St. Paul tells us we need to live as wise persons, making the most of the opportunity because the days are evil. It does not take much to recognize the evil that surrounds us in our present time; however, we do need to understand that we are living in the most evil time in history. Certainly, in some places things have been worse, but from a global perspective, I think this is the worst.
With this in mind, we need to look at the two points St. Paul makes: to live as wise persons and to make the most of the opportunity. Because we live in the worst of times on the natural level, this means we live in the best of times on the spiritual level. By this, I do not mean that the Church is in great shape, because it is not. Rather, I mean that there has never been a better time to be a saint.
God has called every person to be a saint, but the majority of people in our day have rejected His invitation. Many have decided that they want what the world offers more than what our Lord offers. Of course, the world offers fun, excitement, pleasure, wealth, etc. On the other hand, Jesus offers us the Cross. In both of these perspectives, if we look only at the immediate, we fail to recognize the fullness of the situation. Only when we look ahead and beyond what is being offered at the present time can we make a reasonable choice.
What the world, and hidden behind that, what the devil offers will bring some pleasure or excitement in the present, but it leads to emptiness and, ultimately, to destruction and eternal condemnation. What our Lord offers chafes against us and causes us to be uncomfortable and, sometimes, afraid. But it leads to fulfillment and, ultimately, to eternal life. Most of us have learned that what the world, the flesh, and the devil offer does not fulfill. Of course, we have learned this because we have tried it.
We were in Satan’s camp and he thought he had us. However, the grace of God pulled us out of there and, having experienced the emptiness and despair that comes from the selfishness of doing things offered by the evil one, we will never go back, no matter how difficult things may get. This, in a nutshell, leads to the opportunity we have. Now we need to apply the wisdom.
Natural wisdom comes from experience. If we have learned from our experience in the enemy camp, then we need to make a firm choice to put ourselves wholeheartedly into the service of our Lord. The other lesson we should have learned is that when we try to do things ourselves, we get into trouble. Therefore, we must rely on our Lord for His guidance, strength, and wisdom.
We cannot do this alone; thankfully, our Lord promised to remain with us, so if we remain with Him, we are never alone. We must pray in order to remain in union with Jesus. He has chosen to remain with us; we must choose to remain with Him. At the very least, this means remaining in the state of sanctifying grace. But God does not want the least for us, He wants the most.
In the first reading we hear Wisdom calling us to eat the food and drink the wine she has mixed. By doing this, she says we will forsake foolishness and advance in the way of understanding. St. Paul tells us in his first letter to the Corinthians that Jesus is the Wisdom of God. In the Gospel, Jesus, the Wisdom of God, tells us what He has prepared for us: His own Flesh and Blood. If we eat His Flesh and drink His Blood we remain in Him and He in us and we have eternal life. These are exactly the points we mentioned earlier.
The foolish will look only at the natural level and either see just bread and wine or think Jesus is asking us to commit cannibalism. The Wisdom of God, a gift of the Holy Spirit, allows us to realize the truth of transubstantiation and that in the Eucharist we do not receive a piece of Jesus, but the entire Person of Jesus! So, if we want to be saints, we not only live in the best time in the history of the world to be alive, we also have everything we need to do it: we have Jesus truly present in the Eucharist to remain with us and within us! All that remains for us is to live as persons imbued with divine Wisdom, Jesus Himself, and choose to remain with Him and in Him.
Fr. Altier’s column appears regularly in The Wanderer, a national Catholic weekly published in St. Paul, Minn. For information about subscribing to The Wanderer, please visit www.thewandererpress.com.
