20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

My Dear Parishioners,

We gather today to celebrate the Lord’s Day on this 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time. We continue in our reading on chapter 6 from the Gospel of Saint John, “the Bread of Life Discourse.” Once again, unlike the synoptic Gospels, the institution narrative is absent from the Last Supper event in John’s Gospel. But chapter 6 of John’s Gospel gives us so much more regarding our understanding of the Eucharist which the Lord Jesus instituted at the Last Supper on the night of His Passion. In today’s periscope we read: “ I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” The people “quarreled” when they heard Jesus speak these words. This quarreling has been going on ever since and reached the boiling point during the 16th century Protestant Reformation.

The Apostles, present at the Last Supper, have handed down to us what we believe regarding the Lord’s Supper and the manner in which we celebrate it. Just the other day I had reread what Saint Justin Martyr wrote regarding the Lord’s Supper. He is writing about the year 150 A.D., only 50 years after the death of the Last Apostle, Saint John. This is Saint Justin’s FIRST APOLOGY which he wrote to the Emperor Antonius Pius in defense of Christianity.

On the day called Sunday, all who live in the cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the Apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray; and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying “Amen;” and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each think fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who helps the orphans and widows, and those who, through sickness or any other case are in want.

As you can see, the Lord’s Supper (the Holy Mass, the Divine Liturgy) has been celebrated in this manner from the first days of the Church. Christians have been coming forward to receive the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist from the successors of the Apostles in an unbroken tradition. As Catholics, this tradition is a sign of our fidelity to Christ who commanded His Apostles to “do this in memory of me.”

The Sunday Holy Mass is our weekly practice, it is our time to do what the Apostle Paul reminded the Ephesians and us in today’s epistle reading of what our worship should reflect: …addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks always and for everything in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.”

I pray that attendance at the Sunday Holy Mass will always be the priority within the lives of our people. For it is at this sacred gathering that we receive Him, the Bread of Life which has come down from heaven.

God bless you,
Father Zig