Proclaim Good News

Gospel: Mark 16: 15-20

The Gospel of Mark begins and ends with the same reference to good news.  The Gospel begins with the words: The Good News of Jesus Christ, the son of God.  Now, at the end of the Gospel this same Jesus encourages his disciples to proclaim the Good News to all the world.  This bookending literary technique tells us that what lies between these two bookends is the Good News itself - the words and deeds of Jesus in his work in the world.  

The Greek term Mark uses for good news was provocative.  At the time it only referred to decrees of the emperor.  The message of the empire is that only the emperor brings good news to the world.  Mark categorically challenges that notion by stating that only Jesus brings good news to the world, and we are now encouraged as invited disciples of the Lord Jesus to proclaim this good news to the world as well, to undertake in an act that is a direct challenge to the powers of the world.

How often do we seek Good News in the empires of the world!  We look for it in governmental actions, in the actions of business moguls and sports figures.  And yet the Good News is found in none of these places.  Today's feast and Gospel remind us where the Good News lies, and it reminds us that this is the Good News we should be proclaiming in our lives - the saving words and deeds of Jesus that we too should embody in the lives we lead. 

Scandalous Speech

Gospel: John 6: 52-59

The words of Jesus in today's Gospel portion are shocking to people.  How can he give us his flesh to eat? Jesus doubles down on the image and it proves too much to people.  Yes, people are shocked by the literal sense of the words which appear to be cannibalistic.  However, there is much more going on in this passage and larger sweep of the Gospel than this isolated conversation about the bread of life that will emerge later in this chapter.

To partake of the body of the Lord, the bread of life, is to make a commitment to become like the Lord himself.  It is to place ourselves in communion with the Lord and the larger body of Christ.  To eat his flesh means to commit to becoming like the Lord in our way of living.  This entails a life of mercy and care for others in the works of healing, liberating, and nourishing others.  It means a life of self-sacrifice even to the point of death for the sake of others.  

At the end of the day, this is what people cannot accept.  Jesus' invitation to communion is a scandal in a world of darkness. We would rather not be merciful and loving to others.  We prefer the world as it is with all its violence and injustice - as long as those things are suffered by others and we benefit from them.  So again today we spend time discerning what partaking of the body of the Lord entails and whether we seek to be like the Lord in our way of life.   

Communion with the Lord

Gospel: John 6: 44-51

Receiving the bread of life is more than a mere physical action like an ordinary meal.  While communion takes place within the context of a simple meal, the deeper meaning of the action requires our discernment.  For to receive communion is to seek to be in communion with the Lord, to desire to imitate the Lord in our entire being.  To share the table with the Lord, to receive the Lord, the bread of life, is to be in communion with the Lord.

This communion extends to our entire life.  It is to seek to be the Lord in our entire being, to be the presence of love and mercy in the world as Jesus himself had done.  It is to put aside our life of ego, self-interest, and materialism.  We cannot receive the bread of life as merely a self-interested practice that enables us to go about our materialistic lives.  To commune with the Lord is to put on a new identity, a new person who lives for others and not for ourselves.

Communion is the pathway to a new life, to the way to eternal life that can only take place if we seek full communion with the Lord, to seek to be like the Lord in all things.  Today is a day for us to reflect on the meaning and importance of communion in our lives.  In receiving communion are we seeking this oneness with the Lord, this self-identification with the Lord in becoming more like him in all we think, in all we say, in all we do?