Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Our meditation on the readings today sets off with this question; if the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is truly the encounter and the interaction with the Supreme Being, then how can we adequately and fittingly communicate with God through the Mass? And if we take the Mass to be the highest form of prayer, how do we approach it? How do we effectively enter into this sacred conversation in order to benefit from it?
In an effort to draw the attention of the Jews and eventually lead them into an effective and beautiful interaction with the Lord God, into a recognition of God’s presence in their midst, and to enter into a constructive dialogue with the One who once came down on Mountain Sinai and revealed His Holy Name to them, the Lord, Jesus, pleads with the Jews to “stop murmuring amongst themselves.”
The Jews had been murmuring because before their eyes, stands a man who claims to be more than what they can see and comprehend. By all appearances, Jesus is human, after all, He is the Word made flesh. But in His human form, Jesus seems to be causing some confusion in the way humans acquire knowledge of things. Humans do not give birth to bread, and humans do not fall from the sky either. So, how can Jesus be human and at the same time be the bread from heaven? Or in our case, how can the host on the Altar, which, by all appearances, is bread, be at the same time the body and blood, soul and divinity of our Lord, Jesus Christ? Who can help us understand this? Yet, this is the mystery of Faith, not the mystery of reason. In any case, the one who seems to be the source of this confusion, must help us solve this. Therefore, He says “stop murmuring amongst yourselves.” In other words, allow the mystery itself to speak.
Amazement and wonder are the gate ways to fruitful prayer. Fascination arouses interest, mystery incites curiosity. We are drawn towards the extraordinary who is God Himself. Therefore, Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” As humans, we are drawn towards beauty, goodness, truth, wisdom, knowledge, majesty, and life. Now, God is all of these things. We are here because we tend towards life. And Jesus is the bread of life the Father has given to us. In this fashion, God draws us to Himself. God invites us to enter into the mystery of His presence, to look at Him, and to listen to Him. For, it is at God’s promptings and invitation that we gather here today. We have come to meet God, and to be enlightened by God. It is true, therefore, that in the Mass, and through the Mass, the saying “they shall all be taught by God” is fulfilled. The Mass, then, is a theophany – a manifestation of God Himself. It would be vain, therefore, to murmur at the greatness of this mystery if it proves bigger than our reason.
At the very beginning of Mass, we enter into a Sacred dialogue, the access code to this dialogue is the sign of the Cross, invoking the Name of the Most Holy Trinity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. We are brought into this holy exchange, into this sacred interaction, we step into the extraordinary. We listen, we pay attention to the words, the gestures, the movements, and the actions of this sacred communication. And by so doing, we are transformed, as a result. Our thoughts, our words, and our actions are purified. We learn how to behave, how to speak, and how to interact with each other. This is how we become fully human, because we are taught by God. The way we speak to God, and the way we treat and handle what is Most Sacred, informs and determines how we, in turn, speak, treat and handle each other.
In the same spirit of purification, St. Paul appeals to the Ephesians to clean up their language and their attitudes, for, they stand in the presence of the Holy Spirit. Paul writes, “all bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, reviling, must be removed from you.” (Eph. 4:30-5:2). On another occasion, St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians about their misuse of God’s gifts. He wrote, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and also the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons” (1Cor. 11:21. And in our case, for practical purposes, it would be improper to speak a blessing, and also use the same tongue on which our Lord has been placed, to speak evil against each other.
Therefore, the call to “stop murmuring” is also an invitation to a complete conversion of life. An invitation to set out on a journey of Faith – to walk humbly with God who is with us at every step of the way.
Let us, therefore, look to Mary and St. Joseph, and imitate their example. To them, God entrusted His Beloved Son. And over the course of the years, the Mystery unveiled Himself before their eyes. In the deep silence of their lives, and in the quiet place of Nazareth, they beheld and pondered the greatness of this mystery. May we also be given the grace to behold and ponder the mystery of God unveiling His majesty before us.
Amen.
Given on the Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary time.
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