Deacon Tom Writes,
“We’ve Got To Change Our
Evil Ways!”
A
tip of the hat to Carlos Santana for the melody that popped into my head while I was preparing today's reflection… In St.
Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he recalls the history of the Jewish people
and their wandering in the desert”. He reminds his listeners that while their
ancestors were in the desert they, “all
ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink”… yet,
they were “struck down in the desert”
because their spiritual food did not
change their evil desires”. Paul goes on to say that these words, “have been written down as a warning to us,
upon whom the end of the ages has come”. As we listen to these words today,
do they give us a better understanding of Eucharist as our “spiritual food and
drink” to help us on our desert journey? Do Paul’s words lead us into a deeper
awareness of Eucharist as a reality in which we experience Christ and, like the
bread and wine, are permanently changed and transformed into the “Mystical Body
of Christ”?
To
live in the “Kingdom of God” that Jesus reveals requires that we make some
significant changes to the way we think, in how we live our lives, and how we
related and interact with one another”. The process of going about making these
changes is known by various names but they all produce the same results…
“repentance”, “change of heart”, “metanoia”. These are the traditional words
used to describe the interior work we must do to become productive members of
the Kingdom of God that Jesus invites us to seek”.
The
warning Paul gives us today is that we not become like the Israelites of
antiquity who ate and drank the spiritual food provided them but to no avail”. We
have the food of “Everlasting Life”
in the Eucharist and it is indeed life sustaining and life giving…if, and only
if… the food we eat transforms us! In the Kingdom of God, if there is no
transformation, there is no new life!
Just
as we read in the gospel, if there are no figs, of what use is the fig tree? If
the Eucharist produces no new life in us, than really, we are no better off
than our spiritual ancestors who, because they failed to change their evil ways,
were struck down in the desert.
Enjoy
the day!
Deacon Tom
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