Homily For The 20th Sunday In Ordinary Time Year B.

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Proverb 9:1-6; Psalm 34:1-2.9-14; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58.

“THE EUCHARIST: FOOD FOR THE WISE!”

By: Rev. Fr. Charles Onyeka Ezejide

 

·      On this 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B, Jesus invites us to a deeper reflection on the Holy Eucharist. The Eucharist is the food for the wise. Jesus made a solemn promise to us that anyone who eats his flesh and drinks his blood will live forever.

·      In the first reading (Proverb 9:1-6), the author of the book of Proverbs tells us that it is the wise who understand God's gift of the Eucharist to the church. Wisdom invites us to come and eat bread and wine. That bread and wine is a prefiguration of the Holy Eucharist.

·    While it is wise to eat bread and drink wine, there is also an invitation to holiness. We must remember that the Eucharist is a spiritual food, anyone who approaches the altar of the Eucharist must be prepared and purified. We must always walk in the way of insight.

·      Saint Paul in the second reading (Ephesians 5:15-20), follows the thread of the author of the book of Proverbs in the first reading. St Paul tells us that we must look carefully at how we walk and work like wise people because these are evil days. We need the power from the Eucharist to be strengthened and protected from the onslaught of the evil one.

·      We must shun any form of foolishness and any kind of thing that offends God and anything that is in contradiction with what we receive. Rather we ought to be filled with the Holy Spirit, Singing Psalms, and Inspired songs.

·      In the gospel reading (John 6:51-58), Jesus declared that he is the living bread that came down from heaven and anyone who eats the bread shall live forever. The Jews disputed the teaching of Jesus because they lacked the wisdom and insight from above.

·      Many of us like the Jew struggle with the teaching of the Church concerning the real presence of Jesus in the holy Eucharist. The Church teaches that Jesus is present whole and entire in every particle of the Sacred species. We need to pray for the gift of faith to first believe in who we receive and to let what has been received transform us.

·      Dearly beloved, God has gifted himself to us in the Holy Eucharist whole and entire. He does not desire that we be condemned by it but be strengthened and renewed by it. Let us therefore approach this sacred altar with confidence knowing that we have been invited by our loving Father. That is why the Psalmist stated today, “Taste and See that the Lord is good.”

·      May the good Lord bless his words in our hearts, through Christ our Lord, Amen.

·      Happy Sunday!

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