The 1st and 2nd readings this weekend beg us to attain wisdom, which is not just "knowing something," but rather, allowing our lives to be completely reformed and redirected by what we've come to know and experience. That's what a truly "wise" person is. Not a genius, necessarily, but one who has the sense to live a good and worthy life.
We all instinctively KNOW that high school diplomas and college degrees don't make a person wise. We've all seen people with doctorates who are total airheads when it comes to practical day to day living, haven't we?
The first and second readings, today, are not asking us to get a Masters Degree. They are asking us to attain a wisdom of life. They want us to let our lives be formed and reformed by what we've come to know and experience. And what is that, exactly?
The Gospel tells us. It is the experience of the living God in the Eucharist. Christ told his disciples–and anyone else who would listen–that his flesh was true food and his blood true drink, a heavenly food come down from God to give life.
Think about that. In this Eucharist, you receive God in all His fullness: God's energy, God's healing power, God's creative strength, God's enduring presence that empowers us to survive life's worst difficulties. You are entering into Mystery with a capital "M" in this Rite of Holy Communion with your God.
In the Eastern Church, the churches closest to the Holy Land, the sacraments are referred to as the "Energies of God." And that's what they are: God's Energy given to you to transform you, strengthen you, empower you, giving you insight to create new possibilities and thus participate in God's creativity.
Seven years ago, I was pastor of a country congregation in rural Maryland about the size of Pius X, and we were rehearsing our First Communion Class for their big day. At the end of the rehearsal, I asked the kids if they had any questions, and they did..hundreds of them! And one little girl finally asked me, "what does it feel like to receive Jesus?" And I was honest in my reply. I said that sometimes we feel very close to God, and that sometimes we feel nothing...we are too preoccupied or distracted. But, even then, I told her, God's Grace is at work in us, transforming us and empowering us, and one day, it will show itself, when we will be fair when it would have been easier to be foul; or kind when it would have been easier to be rude, or helpful when it would have been easier to pass by.
I don't know what, if anything, you will "feel" today as you touch the Living God and are touched by Him, but I do know that His transforming, sustaining, and strengthening creative power will be unleashed in you....so, expect miracles down the road! And may God bless you all. +
-Father Bill Axe, O.SS.T.
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