Proverbs 9:1-6

The book of Proverbs is a collection of wise sayings, compiled over a number of centuries. Here, the author personifies Wisdom as a woman. She offers guidance on how to live a life pleasing to God. This is symbolized as a banquet at which she serves fine food.

Ephesians 5:15-20

Today's passage in Ephesians continues reflections on how to live as a Christian in everyday life. In the world in which the author lived, ignorance and addiction to alcohol were among the things that kept people from a dignified life. Living properly in the real world never was easy, and the first-century author sets forth high expectations.

John 6:51-58

Bishop Untener's Homily

Picture Jesus at the Last Supper table, holding bread in his hands, and saying the words at the beginning of today's Gospel passage:

Whoever eats this bread will live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.

Scripture scholars think that these words which John places on the lips of Jesus during his long discourse to the crowds in Galilee, could really have been the words Jesus spoke at the Last Supper. We don't know. What we do know is that Jesus is speaking about the Eucharist.

In the Gospel passage read today, there are 11 sentences. In those 11 sentences Jesus uses the word "bread" five times. Do you know how many times he uses the word "life"? Nine times.

The Eucharist is meant to do something to us. It is meant to produce and nurture life. Jesus didn't make himself present to us so that we could come and pay homage to him. He didn't give us the Eucharist so that we could receive him into ourselves and be that much closer to him. He gave us the Eucharist so that he could act upon us, affect us. Later in John he says, "I have come that you might have life, and have it to the full."

We have God's own life within us - God's own life. Imagine! We would probably get that correct on a true and false test, but I'm not sure we really let it sink in: We have God's own life within us. When we think about that and believe it, everything is different.

There are two things I'd like to remind you about this life.

First of all, it is within us now. Jesus calls it "eternal life," but that doesn't mean it's something we have only in eternity. We have this life now. It doesn't "kick in" when we "kick the bucket." My computer has a strong battery, and when the computer is plugged in, the battery is just "there" in reserve. It isn't operating. But if there is a power outage, then it is activated.

That's not the way eternal life operates. It is up and running within us here and now. God's own life is pulsing within us. Now.

The second thing I'd like to remind us about this divine life is that it isn't located somewhere in my "soul." It's in me. It runs through all that I am - my whole body, my whole person, my whole self, all that I am. This life is meant to shine through and enliven and affect everything that is part of me - my thoughts, words, actions.

I almost want to go up to each of you and say, "Do you really believe that?" I want to say it to myself: "Do you really believe that?" Because if we do, it awakens a whole new sense of who we are and how we should live. To realize that, to sense that is a powerful experience, and it affects everything.

With all of that in mind, I want you to listen again to four of the eleven sentences in today's Gospel passage: Here are the first two sentences:

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.

Here is the third sentence:

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.

Here is the fourth sentence. In this one I want you to notice that Jesus compares us to himself, and compares the life within us to the life within him. It is a remarkable statement:

Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.

This is good news, astounding news, hard-to-believe news. No wonder we read this in the verses following today's Gospel: Many of his disciples who were listening said, "This saying is hard. Who can accept it? As a result of this many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.

That's why I want to say to myself, and say to you, "Do you really believe this?"

We do. We believe this. So, my friends, enjoy. Enjoy this life. Live it. Live it up. We are daughters and sons of God, alive with God's own life, made to look like God, act like God.

Enjoy this life. Live it. Live it up. 

Originally given on August 20, 2000