May the Angels Lead Her to Paradise

On Friday, June 5, 2015, retired CBS faculty member, Sr. Joan Bernier, SNDdeN, received the fullness of God's life given her in Baptism. Let us pray for her and for her family at this difficult time.

Weekly Bible Study - Exodus 24:3-8 ▪ Hebrews 9:11-15

7 June 2015
Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Memorable words, familiar rituals, recalled each Eucharist, arising from traditions detailed in the Book of Exodus. Words and rituals ever ancient, ever new.

The bloody ritual that Moses performs strikes a very unfamiliar chord with our modern understanding. We can hardly imagine an ancient custom of splashing blood on an altar and sprinkling it on God’s people. In scripture, blood was considered the source of life, a symbol of reconciliation and hope. This ritual signified the covenant relationship of God and Israel. By sprinkling "life" (blood) on the altar (symbolizing God) and on the people, the two become one life, sharing the life of God.

Of course, God shares life with us more effectively in the perfect sacrifice of Jesus that we celebrate at each Eucharist. The author of Hebrews made sense of the bloody sacrifice of Jesus on the cross by drawing from ancient tradition. As the Letter to the Hebrews contrasts Jesus' sacrifice with the ritual action of Moses, the sacrifice of Jesus is revealed to be greater and more perfect because it is not made by human hands nor renewed annually with the blood of animals in a man-made temple. The mediator of the Old Covenant, through the annual ritual of animal sacrifice, brought God and the Israelites together in a renewable covenant that had to be repeated every time the people sinned. Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant, offers redemption in a way that does not need to be repeated and promises a sharing in God's own life once and for all.

The author, Ms. Barbara Gawle, leads Bible studies at her parish, Incarnation Church of Wethersfield, CT. She is a CBS graduate and the 2012 recipient of the Biblical School's highest award, the Lawrence Boadt Memorial Medal.

Joy of the Gospel #13

49. Let us go forth, then, let us go forth to offer everyone the life of Jesus Christ. Here I repeat for the entire Church what I have often said to the priests and laity of Buenos Aires: I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. I do not want a Church concerned with being at the center and which then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures.

If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life. More than by fear of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving and Jesus does not tire of saying to us: “Give them something to eat” (Mk 6:37).

Gospel Links to Ponder: Mark 6:34-43
Click here to find this biblical reading.

Afterword: God loves a picnic! Hospitality is the #1 virtue of the Old Testament, to my way of thinking. It includes all respect and precludes all violation of God or neighbor. How often in the Bible do we see the messengers of God, and Jesus himself, sitting down to a festive meal with friends and followers? I am ashamed to admit that, in the reconciliation room this month, I had to confess a time very recently when I shut the door on someone asking me for Christian fellowship. I fervently hope that I have matured in my faith through this terrible experience of sin and will never fall in this way again.

Do you hear Christ's invitation to "Give them something to eat" today? If not, you are not listening!

Weekly Bible Study - Deut 4:32-40 ▪ Rom 8:14-17

31 May 2015
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

It seems, from our reading of the Old Testament, that the first thing God wanted the Israelites to know was that there is  no other God like our God, Yahweh. In today’s first reading Moses reminds the assembly that it was the Lord God who performed wondrous deeds “before their very eyes,” and no other. This speech, one of many in the Book of Deuteronomy, does more than reminisce about God’s saving acts and powerful revelations “speaking from the midst of fire.” It is more than a promise to the children of Israel. It is a clarion call that they should “fix in their hearts that the Lord is God, ... and that there is no other.”

In his Letter to the Romans, Paul wants to fix this same image in the hearts of the Roman Christians of his time. The Spirit bears witness, Paul teaches, that followers of Jesus are children of God. Could there be any greater reassurance than that? God is our Father and there is no other! Nothing else to be relied on or believed in. We have received a spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry “Abba, Father.” It is important to note that the original intent of “Abba” was not exactly the familiar “daddy” as is sometimes suggested today. In its Aramaic and Hebrew origins, “Abba” is an intimate designation of God as Father, but with a focus on reverence, solemnity, an acknowledgement of God’s sovereignty. In the one place in the Gospel in which Jesus addresses God in this way (Mark 14:36) the focus of the passage is complete obedient surrender of the will of Jesus to the will of God. This should give us pause as we ask: Are we truly ready to call God “Abba?” Are we ready to be obedient, even unto death?

The language of Deuteronomy and Romans may be separated by the saving act of Jesus, but the message is one message: We are the children of God, the God who is the sovereign Lord of all creation and no other. As we unite ourselves with Jesus in his life and in his suffering and death, we will also join him in his resurrection from the dead.

The author, Ms. Barbara Gawle, leads Bible studies at her parish, Incarnation Church of Wethersfield, CT. She is a CBS graduate and the 2012 recipient of the Biblical School's highest award, the Lawrence Boadt Memorial Medal.