Friday, February 26, 2016

We've Got To Change Our Evil Ways!

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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