Immersed in Christ: October 28, 2020

Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles

also, Wednesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

The Responsorial (Psalm 19) declares “Their message goes out through all the earth.” Those who carry it are driven by nurtured desire: “Give us this day our daily bread.” What they have been given, they want to give.

The spirit of Ephesians 2:19-22 is that of the Rite of Communion: a spirit of basking in what is while looking forward to what will be. We relish the fruit of Christ’s victory now, and rejoice in the fullness his Kingdom will have when God reigns throughout the world.

What Paul describes is already a fact for his hearers: “you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God.” That is what we are. It is a mystery that invites “endless exploration.” We need to think about it until we appreciate it.

Paul also alerts us to action that is taking place right now, that we are called to be consciously involved in: “You form a building which... is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in him you are being built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.” Construction is under way. We are the construction workers.

The Rite of Communion has this double focus: simultaneously we are resting and being launched. We sit in “sacred silence” after Communion, assimilating the Bread of the banquet of the Lamb, absorbed in the foretaste of heaven we are experiencing right now. The assembly is deeply, consciously “one body” from receiving the “one bread.” This is all we desire, “Give us this day” —or in Luke 11:13, “Give us each day”— the “daily bread” of experiencing union with Christ. Let him be for us our daily bread. He who is satisfying our desire is inflaming it. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry”—except for the Bread itself, which we can never get enough of. After awhile, he is all we desire.1

At the same time, we are being moved and motivated, as stewards of what we have received, to give what we have tasted to the whole world. We cannot pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” and then, when we receive it, not want to give it in turn to everyone who is hungry. Through this desire, “Their message goes out through all the earth.”

Luke 6:12-16 lists the “twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” that are written on the “twelve foundations” of the Church “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.” These are the witnesses chosen by Jesus himself to be with him “during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us.” “Their message goes out through all the earth.” We are the stewards of this message, charged to be faithful in continuing it. 2

Initiative: Make your prayer “Give us the Bread.” And give it to others.

1 John 6:35. 2 Revelation 21:14; Ephesians 2:19-20;Acts 1:21-22. View Today's Readings Here