From: WILLIAM ....
To: Donald ....
Sent: Wed, 11 May, 2011 17:38:29
Subject: Re: John 6 - and the world of the android phone!
Dear Father Donald,
Thank you! Goodness, I was bedazzled by the Android article and links - absolutely amazing! All so new to me, wonders that have arrived since I stepped aside from IT involvement five years ago. BUT what resources are available! It first needed my dictionary ("Android - a robot in human form"!) followed by Wikipedia! The Android Market is a vast world of enterprise for a world 'on the move'. I will ask the osteopath about the general topic - he runs his life from his mobile applications!
The Gospel readings, John 6, are an ocean of revelation, and there is so much to research... Benedict XVI Vol 1 excuses himself (page 264) from 'considering the details of this discourse, which the exegetes have discussed at length and analysed thoroughly', limiting himself 'to drawing out its principal message'. At the foot of page 269 ff 270, he gives a very fine explanatory summary of the teaching, ending with a 'brief look at one of the key sayings of John's gospel' (page 271), bringing the whole mystery into the palm of one's hands in the Eucharist: a perfect summary from which to start to burrow... and where other than your recommended Sacra Pagina!
There are three passages in Sacra Pagina, each gathering pace in revelation. I began sedately with the first of the "Interpretations" that applied to today's Gospel passage, but the pace outpaced my resolve! [Page 214-215, verses 34-40] sets the scene, [page 217-219, verses 41-51] develops the theme, [page 221-224, verses 52-59] brings the revelation to a fulfilling climax. And the joy is that, over the next two days, I can re-read these 'interpretations' again, and again (at my own pace, knowing where they are heading!).
One day - either in learned book form (or indeed via an 'Android app'!), I should like to venture into the recommended texts which are listed "for reference and further study", but for now, I will relish all that Sacra Pagina presents.
Bounding with excitement, thank you for again drawing me into the joy of shared reflection!
Meanwhile I hope Fr. Nivard's own version of 'SatNav' brings him safely home soon! I will ask him of his adventures (yet to have my own to Nunraw!).
... Our Risen Lord,
William
From: Donald
To: William . . .
Sent: Wednesday, 11 May, 2011 13:00:58
Subject: Android Bible
Dear William,
On Tuersday I had the Mass.
We are into John 6 and I had a nodding wave at "BREAD" in this chapter, 20 occurrences. The Ancestors said "He gave them bread from heaven". Joh 6:31. The Jews speak of bread. Jesus uses the "word" very differently. There is fine tuning - it is as very different as heaven and earth.
"I am the bread of life".6:35
In this sound bite, we might ask, "How can I hwlp others understand Jesus' presence in the Eucharist.
We can, we offer Holy Mass, we can ask ourselves how understand Jesus' presence ..."
We can, we offer Holy Mass, we can ask ourselves how understand Jesus' presence ..."
BREAD in Ben xvi Vol 1 digs deep again.
But I feel that the brain wheels are grinding slower.
Hence the easier diversion. See Attachment of Evaluation of Android Bible. http://bibleandtech.blogspot.com/2011/05/evaluation-of-android-bible-apps.html
And, after-though, Haydock Commentary on Jn 6.
.....+
Donald
JESUS OF NAZARETH, POPE BENED1CT XVI, Part 1
From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, pp. 263-272
Bread
We have already dealt extensively with the bread motif in connection with Jesus' temptations. We have seen that the temptation to turn the desert rocks into bread raises the whole question of the Messiah's mission, and that through the devil's distortion of this mission Jesus' positive answer can already be glimpsed; this answer then becomes explicit once and for all in the gift of his body as bread for the life of the world on the eve of his Passion. We have also encountered the bread motif in our exposition of the fourth petition of the Our Father, where we tried to survey the different dimensions of this petition, and thus to explore the full range of the bread theme. At the end of Jesus' activity in Galilee, he performs the multiplication of the loaves; on one hand, it is an unmistakable sign of Jesus' messianic mission, while on the other, it is also the crossroads of his public ministry, which from this point leads dearly to the Cross. All three Synoptic Gospels tell of a miraculous feeding of five thousand men (cf Mt 14:13-21; Mk 6:32-44; Lk 9:10b-I7); Matthew and Mark tell of an additional feeding of four thousand (cf. Mt 15:32-38; Mk 8:1-9).
The two stories have a rich theological content that we cannot enter into here. I will restrict myself to John's story of the multiplication of the loaves (cf. [n 6:1-15), not in order to study it in depth, but rather to focus upon the interpretation that Jesus gives of this event in his great bread of life discourse the following day in the synagogue on the other side of the lake. One more qualification is in order: We cannot consider the details of this discourse, which the exegetes have discussed at length and analyzed thoroughly. I would merely like to draw out its principal message and, above all, to situate it in the context of the whole tradition to which it belongs and in terms of which it has to be understood.
The fundamental context in which the entire chapter belongs is centered upon the contrast between Moses and Jesus. Jesus is the definitive, greater Moses-the "prophet" whom Moses foretold in his discourse at the border of the Holy Land and concerning whom God said, "I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him" (Deut 18:18)' It is no accident, then, that the following statement occurs between the multiplication of the loaves and the attempt to make Jesus king: "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world!" On 6:14). In a very similar vein, after the saying about the water of life on the Feast of Tabernacles, the people say: 'This is really the prophet" On 7:40). The Mosaic background provides the context for the claim that Jesus makes. Moses struck the rock in the desert and out flowed water; Jesus promises the water of life, as we have seen. The great gift, though, which stood out in the people's memory, was the manna. Moses gave bread from heaven; God himself fed the wandering people of Israel with heavenly bread. For a people who often went hungry and struggled to earn their daily bread, this was the promise of promises, which somehow said everything there was to say: relief of every want-a gift that satisfied hunger for all and forever.
Before we take up this idea, which is the key to understanding chapter 6 of John's Gospel, we must first complete the picture of Moses, because this is the only way to focus upon John's picture of Jesus. The central point from which we started in this book, and to which we keep returning, is that Moses spoke face-to-face with God, "as a man speaks to his friend" (Ex 3ru; cf. Dent 34:10). It was only because he spoke with God himself that Moses could bring God's word to men. But, although this immediate relationship with God is the heart and inner foundation of Moses' mission, a shadow lies over it. For when Moses says, "I pray thee, show me thy glory," at the very moment when the text affirms that he is God's friend who has direct access to him, he receives this answer:
"While my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen" (Ex 3p8, 22f.). Even Moses sees only God's back-his face" shall not be seen." The limits to which even Moses is subject now become clear.
The saying at the end of the prologue is the decisive key to the image of Jesus in John's Gospel: "No one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, who is nearest to the Father's heart, who has made him known" On 1:18). Only the one who is God sees God-Jesus. He truly speaks from his vision of the Father, from unceasing dialogue with the Father, a dialogue that is his life. If Moses only showed us, and could only show us, God's back, Jesus, by contrast, is the Word that comes from God, from a living vision of him, from unity with him. Connected with this are two further gifts to Moses that attain their final form in Christ. First, God communicated his name to Moses, thereby making possible a relationship between himself and human beings; by handing on the name revealed to him, Moses acts as mediator of a real relationship between men and the living God. We have already reflected on this point in our consideration of the first petition of the Our Father. Now, in his high-priestly prayer Jesus stresses that he has revealed God's name, that he has brought to completion this aspect too of the work begun by Moses. When we consider the high-priestly prayer, we will have to investigate this claim more closely: In what sense has Jesus gone beyond Moses in revealing God's "name"?
The other gift to Moses - which is closely connected with the vision of God and the communication of his name, as well as with the manna-is the gift that gives Israel its identity as God's people in the first place: the Torah, the word of God that points out the way and leads to life. Israel realized with increasing clarity that this was Moses' fundan1ental and enduring gift, that what really set Israel apart was this knowledge of God's will and so of the right path of life. The great Psalm 119 is a single outburst of joy and gratitude for this gift. A one-sided view of the Law, arising from a one-sided interpretation of Pauline theology, prevents us from seeing this joy of Israel: the joy of knowing God's will, and so of being privileged to live in accordance with God's will.
This observation brings us back to the bread of life discourse, surprising as that may seem. For as Jewish thought developed inwardly, it became increasingly plain that the real bread from heaven that fed and feeds Israel is precisely the Law-the word of God. The Wisdom Literature presents the wisdom that is substantially accessible and present in the Law as "bread" (Prov 9:5); the rabbinic literature went on to develop this idea further (Barrett, Gospel, p: 290). This is the perspective from which we need to understand Jesus' dispute with the Jews assembled in the synagogue at Capernaum, Jesus begins by pointing out that they have failed to understand the multiplication of the loaves as a "sign," which is its true meaning. Rather, what interested them was eating and having their fill (cf. Jn 6:26). They have been looking at salvation in purely material terms, as a matter of universal wellbeing, and they have therefore reduced man, leaving God out altogether. But if they see the manna only as a means of satisfying their hunger, they need to realize that even the manna was not heavenly bread, but only earthly bread. Even though it came from “heaven," it was earthly food--or rather a food substitute that would necessarily cease when Israel emerged from the desert back into inhabited country.
But man hungers for more. He needs more. The gift that feeds man as man must be greater, must be on a wholly different level. Is the Torah this other food? It is in some sense true that in and through the Torah, man can make God's will his food (cf. Jn 4:34). So the Torah is "bread" from God, then. And yet it shows us only God's back, so to speak. It is a "shadow:' "For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world" On 6:33). As the audience still does not understand, Jesus repeats himself even more unambiguously: "I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst" (J n 6:35).
The Law has become a person. When we encounter Jesus, we feed on the living God himself, so to speak; we truly eat "bread from heaven:' By the same token, Jesus has already made it clear that the only work God demands is the work of believing in him. Jesus' audience had asked him: "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" (In 6:28)' The text uses here the Greek word ergazesthai, which means "to perform a work" (Barrett, Gospel, P: 287). Jesus' listeners are ready to work, to do something, to perform "works," in order to receive this bread. But it cannot be "earned" by human work, by one's own achievement. It can only come to us as a gift from God, as God's work. The whole of Pauline theology is present in this dialogue. The highest things, the things that really matter, we cannot achieve on our own; we have to accept them as gifts and enter into the dynamic of the gift, so to speak. This happens in the context of faith in Jesus, who is dialogue-a living relationship with the Father-and who wants to become Word and love in us as well.
But the question as to how we can "feed" on God, live on God, in such a way that he himself becomes our bread -- his question is not yet fully answered by what has just been said. God becomes "bread" for us first of all in the Incarnation of the Logos: The Word takes on flesh. The Logos becomes one of us and so comes down to our level, comes into the sphere of what is accessible to us. Yet a further step is still needed beyond even the Incarnation of the Word. Jesus names this step in the concluding words of his discourse: His flesh is life "for" the world (In 6:5I). Beyond the act of the Incarnation, this points to its intrinsic goal and ultimate realization: Jesus' act of giving himself up to death and the mystery of the Cross.
This is made even clearer in verse 53, where the Lord adds that he will give us his blood to "drink." These words are not only a manifest allusion to the Eucharist, Above all they point to what underlies the Eucharist: the sacrifice of Jesus, who sheds his blood for us, and in so doing steps out of himself, so to speak, pours himself out, and gives himself to us.
In this chapter, then, the theology of the Incarnation and the theology of the Cross come together; the two cannot be separated. There are thus no grounds for setting up an opposition between the Easter theology of the Synoptics and Saint Paul, on one hand, and Saint John’s supposedly purely incarnational theology, on the other. For the goal of the Word's becoming-flesh spoken of by the prologue is precisely the offering of his body on the Cross, which the sacrament makes accessible to us. John is following here the same line of thinking that the Letter to the Hebrews develops on the basis of Psalm 40:6-8: "Sacrifices and offerings you did refuse you have prepared a body for me" (Heb ro:5). Jesus becomes man in order to give himself and to take the place of the animal sacrifices, which could only be a gesture of longing, but not an answer.
Jesus' bread discourse, on one hand, points the main movement of the Incarnation and of the Paschal journey toward the sacrament, in which Incarnation and Easter are permanently present, but conversely, this has the effect of integrating the sacrament, the Holy Eucharist, into the larger context of God's descent to us and for us. On one hand, then, the Eucharist emphatically moves right to the center of Christian existence; here God does indeed give us the manna that humanity is waiting for, the true "bread of heaven"--the nourishment we can most deeply live upon as human beings. At the same time, however, the Eucharist is revealed as man's unceasing great encounter with God, in which the Lord gives himself as "flesh;' so that in him, and by participating in his way, we may become "spirit." Just as he was transformed through the Cross into a new manner of bodiliness and of being-human pervaded by God's own being, so too for us this food must become an opening out of our existence, a passing through the Cross, and an anticipation of the new life in God and with God.
This is why at the conclusion of the discourse, which places such emphasis 011 Jesus' becoming flesh and our eating and drinking the "flesh and blood of the Lord," Jesus says: "it is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of 110 avail" 0n 6:63). This may remind us of Saint Paul's words: "The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit" (I Cor 15:45). This in no way diminishes the realism of "becoming-flesh." Yet the Paschal perspective of the sacrament is underlined: Only through the Cross and through the transformation that it effects does this flesh become accessible to us, drawing us up into the process of transformation. Eucharistic piety needs to be constantly learning from this great Christological -indeed, cosmic- dynamism.
In order to understand the full depth of Jesus' bread discourse, we must finally take a brief look at one of the key sayings of John's Gospel, Jesus pronounces it on Palm Sunday as he looks ahead to the universal Church that will embrace Jews and Greeks-all the peoples of the world: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" 0n 12:24). What we call "bread" contains the mystery of the Passion. Before there can be bread, the seed-the grain of wheat-first has to be placed in the earth, it has to "die;' and then the new ear can grow out of this death. Earthly bread can become the bearer of Christ's presence because it contains in itself the mystery of the Passion, because it unites in itself death and resurrection. This is why the world's religions used bread as the basis for myths of death and resurrection of the godhead, in which man expressed his hope for life out of death.
In this connection, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn reminds us of the conversion of the great British writer C. S. Lewis; Lewis, having read a twelve-volume work about these myths, came to the conclusion that this Jesus who took bread in his hands and said, "This is my body;' was just "another corn divinity, a corn king who lays down his life for the life of the world." One day, however, he overheard a firm atheist remarking to a colleague that the evidence for the historicity of the Gospels was actually surprisingly good. The atheist then paused thoughtfully and said: "About the dying God. Rum thing. It almost looks as if it really happened once" (Schonborn, Weihnacht, pp. 23f.).
Yes, it really did happen. Jesus is no myth. He is a man of flesh and blood and he stands as a fully real part of history. We can go to the very places where he himself went. We can hear his words through his witnesses. He died and he is risen. It is as if the mysterious Passion contained in bread had waited for him, had stretched out its arms toward him; it is as if the myths had waited for him, because in him what they long for came to pass. The same is true of wine. It too contains the Passion in itself, for the grape had to be pressed in order to become wine. The Fathers gave this hidden language of the eucharistic gifts an even deeper interpretation. I would like to add just one example here. In the early Christian text called the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, also known as the Didache (probably composed around the year 100), the following prayer is recited over the bread intended for the Eucharist:
"As the bread was scattered on the mountains and brought into unity, so may the Church be gathered from the ends of the earth into your Kingdom" (IX, 4).
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