Wise Words on Wednesday: You may as well be dead
(Thanks to The Corner With A View for the picture)
"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
(Thanks to The Corner With A View for the picture)
Over the last couple of days I’ve been looking at the comments I received in response to my Leading A Bible Study series. So far I have considered the feedback concerning the meeting location and the feedback concerning the discussion portion of the evening.
Today I would like to finish by looking at some of the suggestions I received regarding the conclusion of the meeting.
Today I’m going to continue looking at some of the feedback I received from my series on Leading a Bible Study. Yesterday I considered the meeting location and today I’m going to look at the comments concerning the discussion itself.
Last month I published a series entitled Leading A Bible Study. I wrote those posts for two reasons. The first reason was to clarify in my own mind some of the lessons I had learned from leading various church groups. The other reason was to provide a resource for those beginning similar endeavours.
Upon completing the series, I sent out requests for feedback. I contacted friends, other Bible study leaders, as well as some random people on the Internet!
In response to the feedback I received, I decided to write a few follow-up posts on this subject. I will devote a post to each area of feedback, quoting the feedback received and offering my own comments in RED.
I’ve been on vacation this week so my notes are late and not quite as polished as they are normally.
Our Readings this week focus again on the subject of sacred food.
In the First Reading, we read how the Israelites were fed with manna in the desert. The manna is also the subject of this week’s Psalm, as psalmist proclaims “The Lord gave them bread from heaven”. These are also the words quoted by the crowd who come to Jesus after “The Feeding of the Multitude”. The crowd comes expecting another free meal, but rather than filling their stomachs, Jesus directs them towards deeper spiritual realities, declaring Himself to be “the bread of life” and that “whoever comes…will never hunger, and whoever believes…will never thirst”.
Our understanding of the Second Reading may be illuminated by considering the rite of Baptism in the early centuries of the Church. In preparation for the Sacrament, someone wishing to be baptised would receive a period of instruction. Afterwards, he would then arrive at the Baptismal pool and shed himself of his clothes, symbolically demonstrating that he wished to “put away the old self of [the] former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires”. He would then descend into the baptismal pool where he would be washed in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, “renewed in the spirit of [his] mind”. He would then ascend and be clothed in a white garment to show that he had “put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth”. After having been washed in the waters of regeneration, this newly-born Christian would be admitted to the liturgy of the Eucharist where he would finally receive the bread of life.
We too have been washed in the waters of baptism, we too have been admitted to the altar. Let us live our lives this week in the “holiness of truth” . We do not receive simply the “bread of angels”, but something even greater, “the bread of life” Himself.
When, through the hand of the priest, you receive the Body of Christ, think not of the priest which you see, but of the Priest you do not see. The priest is the dispenser of this food, not the author. The Son of man gives Himself to us, that we may abide in Him, and He in us – Alcuin