Roc Homily – Twentieth Sunday Ordinary Time

“The Bread of Life Discourse IV”  –  Believing in the Word means abiding in Jesus, who abides in the Father who abides in the Son.  Eating the Bread of Life means abiding in Jesus.  Following the Good Shepherd means abiding contemplatively in Jesus.  Remaining in the True Vine means abiding in Jesus contemplatively.  And this passage continues to reveal to ourselves to our eyes, and it ain’t pretty.  We miss the Giver in the Gift (give us always this bread to eat!) because our emptiness drives us to fill our hunger now! In this way, we “leap over” our precious and terrible human vulnerability, the very flesh that the Word took.  The challenge with abiding contemplatively in Christ is that we are invited to dwell also within our vulnerability.

The liturgy can instruct us…

Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time  

Homily by Roc O’Connor, SJ, associate pastor of the Church of the Gesu  (August 16, 2015)

John 6:51-58   “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.”