Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: This is Sundays with Bishop Ken.
Thanks for sharing some quiet time with the Lord today. Our guest reader is Father Burt Gome, a senior priest from the diocese of Saginaw in Michigan. Father Burt was a priest in the diocese when Bishop Ken was its shepherdess.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: A reading from the holy gospel according to John.
Jesus said to the crowds, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.
And the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.
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 up 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.
The gospel of the Lord picture Jesus at the last supper table, holding bread in his hands and saying the words at the beginning of today's gospel passage.
Whoever eats this bread will live forever.
And the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.
Scripture scholars think that these words, which John places on the lips of Jesus during his long discourse to the crowds in Galilee, could really have been the words Jesus spoke at the last Supper.
We don't know. What we do know is that Jesus is speaking about the Eucharist.
In the gospel passage read today, there are eleven sentences.
In those eleven sentences, Jesus uses the word bread five times.
Do you know how many times he uses the word life nine times.
The Eucharist is meant to do something to us. It is meant to produce and nurture life.
Jesus didn't make himself present to us so that we could come and pay homage to him.
He didn't give us the Eucharist so that we could receive him into ourselves and be that much closer to him.
He gave us the Eucharist so that he could act upon us, affect us.
Later in John, he says, I have come. That you may have life and have it to the full.
We have God's own life within us.
God's own life. Imagine, I we would probably get that correct on a true and false test. But I'm not sure we really let it sink in.
We have God's own life within us.
When we think about that and believe it, everything is different.
There are two things I'd like to remind you about this life.
First of all, it is within us now.
Jesus calls it eternal life. But that doesn't mean it's something we have only in eternity.
We have this life now.
It doesn't kick in when we kick the bucket.
My computer has a strong battery, and when the computer is plugged in, the battery is just there in reserve. It isn't operating.
But if there is a power outage, then it is activated.
That's not the way eternal life operates.
It is up and running within us here and now.
God's own life is pulsing within us now.
The second thing I'd like to remind us about this divine life is that it isn't located somewhere in my soul.
It's in me. It runs through all that I am, my whole body, my whole person, my whole self, all that I am.
This life is meant to shine through and enliven and affect everything that is part of me.
My thoughts, words, actions.
I almost want to go up to each of you and say, do you really believe this?
I want to say it to myself, do you really believe this?
Because if we do, it awakens a whole new sense of who we are and how we should live to realize this, to sense this is a powerful experience and it affects everything.
With all that in mind, listen again to four of the eleven sentences in today's gospel passage.
Here are the first two.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.
Here is the third sentence.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.
Here is the fourth sentence.
In this one, I want you to notice that Jesus compares us to himself and compares the life within us to the life within him.
It is a remarkable statement.
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 good news.
Astounding news, hard to believe news.
No wonder we read this in the verses following today's gospel.
Many of his disciples who were listening said, this saying is hard. Who can accept it?
As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.
That's why I want to say to myself and say to you, do you really believe this?
We do. We believe this. We are daughters and sons of God alive with God's own life made to look like God. Act like God.
So, my friends, enjoy. Enjoy this life. Live it. Live it up.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us today. If you like this week's reflection, subscribe on your favorite podcast platform for daily reflections during the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter, subscribe to the Little Books app found on the Apple or Google Play Stores. The podcast is brought to you free of charge from Little Books. To help support our ministry, please consider donating by clicking on the donate button now. And of course, why not tell a friend about this podcast?
Sundays with Bishop Ken is produced by Little Books of the Diocese of Saginaw. For more about little books and great resources for the whole family, visit littlebooks.org dot.
