Archdiocesan Shrine and Parish of St. Jude Thaddeus, Naga City | v.3, n.32 | issn 2599-5030 | 5 to 11 August 2018
giya sa prayer meeting
GIVE US OUR ‘WAYBREAD’
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nknown to many, J.R.R. Tolkien, English writer and author of The Lord of the Rings, has embedded Catholic overtones in most of his works. He was even a contributor to the Jerusalem Bible as translator and lexicographer. In the said novel, the hobbit protagonist Frodo Baggins received help from the Elves in the form of a special bread, called Lembas. alone, we could not survive its harsh Shaped into thin cakes, it is very conditions. Pope Francis warns the modern nutritious, stays fresh for months man of the heresy of Pelagianism when kept unbroken in its original SUNDAY where salvation and holiness are leaf-wrappings, and is used for REFLECTION reduced to our own powers, sustenance on long journeys. success and outward actions, leading Some writers like S. Greydanus individuals to “feel superior to others and B. Birzer see the Eucharistic because they observe certain rules or remain motif in this scene. The Elves, they alluded, intransigently faithful to a particular represent the angels, giving the heavenly Catholic style” (Gaudete et Exultate, 49). In bread to the mortals so that they could our limited human nature, we need to finish their journey here on earth welcome the bread of God as a source of victoriously. In fact, Tolkien wrote that the contagious joy. common name of Lembas is “waybread”, The Eucharist is not simply a feel-good corresponding surreptitiously to Viaticum. gathering of Club members. The Eucharist In Catholic parlance, it is the Latin term meaning “for the way,” literally the spiritual is not that cute little wafer we receive from the priest. It is our spiritual sustenance—the food for the Christian’s arduous journey food par excellence we need for our long through earthly life to heaven. The discourse of Jesus on the “true bread journey lest we perish. The hunger to seek physical satisfaction is like drinking salty from heaven” in this Sunday’s Gospel could be best understood with the help of the first water that could never quench one’s thirst. Jesus admonishes us to go look for the food reading. The book of Exodus narrates a that lasts to eternal life. There are deeper similar difficult journey of the Israelites hungers like the hunger for truth, for life towards liberation. They had come to a and for love that only Jesus could satisfy. painful point where they grumbled and Jesus reminds us that it was not Moses who longed for their former life as slaves due to gave the Israelites the manna. It was God. fear of famine. But God intervened and eased their suffering by raining down bread The manna was a foretaste of the real bread from heaven that we lovingly keep in our from heaven. Tabernacles until this day. Only Jesus could The road to any kind of liberation is never easy. Any sin or addiction is enslaving satisfy our hunger in this long journey to eternal life. 4 fr. francis a. tordilla, and seduces us back to the old life each parochial vicar time. It always leads us to the desert. Left
juan 6:41-51 Domingo 19 (Taon b)
“N
aggugumod-gumod an mga hudiyo kontra saiya...” An paggumod-gumod kan mga Israelita kan panahon ni Moises pareho man kan panahon ni Jesus. Mayo sindang pagtubod sa Dyos. Kan LECTIO panahon ni Moises, DIVINA naggumod-gumod sinda huli ta an pagmati ninda, pinaba-yaan sinda kan Dyos. Ki Jesus, pagmati ninda, pinuputikan sinda. Dai ninda maako na si Jesus na namundag sa Belen, nagdakula sa Nazaret, asin nagpuon kan saiyang ministeryo sa Kapernaum, magin Dyos asin magin tinapay na hali sa langit? Kasurain ako naggumod-gumod sa Dyos? Tàno?
“Mayo nin makakadulok sako kun dai dagkahon kan Ama na nagsugo sako...” An kaligtasan inisyatibo kan Dyos. Sya an may kamàwutan na kita makaligtas. Pinili kita. Bako kita an nagpili saiya. Alagad, dai magigibo kan Dyos an kaligtasan kun magsayuma kita. An pagdagka siring sa pagbutong kan hikot sa dagat na pano nin mga sira. May kasakitan sa parte kan Dyos, lalong-lalo na an mga tawong pagabat huli kan saindang paggumod-gumod sa saiyang katukduan. Pàno ako nagigin pagabat sa Dyos?
“Ako an tinapay kan buhay.” Lain an tinapay na manna kan panahon ni Moises sa tinapay na iyo si Jesus. An manna kakanon sana para sa tulak, alagad si Jesus kakanon para sa kalag. Asin bilang tinapay kan buhay, magdadara syang buhay na daing kasagkuran sa sisay man na mag-ako sa saiya bilang Dyos na nanilaman. Totoo, an tinapay na ini iyo an saiyang laman. Asin inaako ta sya sa Banal na Eukaristiya. Para sa ano an pagkomunyon ko? 4