Life Beyond Imagining
by Fr. David M. Knight
August 18, 2024
Twentieth Sunday of the Year
Lectionary 119
Prv 9:1-6/Eph 5:15-20/Jn 6:51-58
What in your experience of Church calls you “beyond all imagining”? The Entrance Antiphon sings, “If we can be with you even one day, it is better than a thousand years without you.” Really? Would you trade even one year of good living in your family, work and recreation, though without any conscious thought of God, for “one day” of prayer and retreat? Would anything you experience in religion—or at Mass—move you to make a choice so far “beyond all imagining”?
Perhaps our experiences at Mass over the years have provided some that we can “reach joy beyond all our imagining”—not just in heaven, but now—by loving God “in all things and above all things.” That is too deep and abstract to “get on first bounce.” So this Mass does call us to “go beyond” our daily level of thinking and dreaming. Most people, honestly, don’t have enough faith and hope to act on that call. But most people aren’t reading these Reflections!
Be wise
Proverbs 9:1-6 says:
Wisdom has built her house... spread her table... and calls from the heights... “Let whoever is simple turn in here! To whoever lacks understanding, I say come, eat of my food.... that you may live.”
The 2005 Biblia Latinoamericana translates “simple” as those who “don’t know” (no saben) and “without understanding” as those who “don’t think about anything” (no piensan en nada). Obviously Wisdom is inviting those who “don’t know” and “don’t think about” the deep truths of life, the things that enhance our existence longterm. Wisdom is defined as the habit of “seeing everything in the light of our last end,” relating everything to the goal of life. You would think common sense would make us do that, but common sense is uncommon. So the reading calls it wisdom to “Forsake foolishness” in order to “advance in the way of understanding.”
If we do, we will understand that “joy beyond all our imagining” can be found in “loving God in all things and above all things.” Few believe this.
Don’t be fools
Ephesians 5:15-20 picks right up on this. “Do not act like fools, but like thoughtful people.” Paul says, “Make the most of the present opportunity.” Don’t waste your time. Think! “For these are evil days.” Don’t try to navigate through them brain dead.
When Paul says, “Avoid getting drunk, for that is debauchery,” we believe his advice, even when we don’t follow it. But when he gives equal or greater value to: “Be filled with the Spirit... Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts,” we don’t believe him enough to even think of what that might mean. It is “beyond all our imagining.” Outside of our mind set. In one ear and out the other, like those who “have ears but hear not.”
And yet there are places—New Zealand is one of them—where hundreds of Catholics come together after Mass every week to spend a couple of hours just singing and praising God. They get something out of it. Is it “beyond all our imagining” to think that we would?
Why don’t we “act like thoughtful people” and consider it? Ask how we are “making the most of the time” on Sundays (and other days) “in the light of our last end.” Our “last end” is to be caught up for all eternity in “loving God in all things and above all things.” Would it be an act of ministry to start something that would help people get a little taste of it now?
Eucharist is the key
John 6:51-58: If we put signs outside our churches that said: “One Stop Spiritual Need Center,” it would be stupid, but close to accurate. Vatican II called Eucharist the “source and summit” of the Christian life. Mass has pretty much got it all: praise and thanksgiving, the word of God, instruction, prayer, community, and the mystery of joining Christ in offering ourselves “with him, in him and through him” during the Eucharistic Prayer: our “flesh for the life of the world.” And in Communion his body and blood are given to us as food, with the promise, “The one who feeds on this bread will live forever.” Shouldn’t it be “beyond all our imagining” that anyone would give all this up by just dropping out of Mass? But millions do. God says in Scripture: “Do not act like fools.” Make Mass work for you, and make it work for others.
This Gospel passage speaks of “life” and “living” nine times. Do you think Jesus is trying to make a point? But for Eucharist to give life as it can, we need to make the celebration “come alive.” That depends far less on the ordained priest than on all the baptized priests in the pews. If we all began to “Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among ourselves,” at Mass, “making melody to the Lord in our hearts,” Mass would be transformed. And so would we. Beyond all imagining.
Insight: Do you understand what is missing at Mass? How much of it is your fault?
Initiative: Celebrate at Mass until everybody else is celebrating with you.
Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry
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