Saturday is the Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary
(Holy Day of Obligation)
Reading 1
Proverbs 9:1-6
Wisdom has built her house,
she has set up her seven columns;
she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine,
yes, she has spread her table.
She has sent out her maidens; she calls
from the heights out over the city:
“Let whoever is simple turn in here;
To the one who lacks understanding, she says,
Come, eat of my food,
and drink of the wine I have mixed!
Forsake foolishness that you may live;
advance in the way of understanding.”
Gospel
John 6:51-58
Jesus said to the crowds:
“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 Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food,
and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him.
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 the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
Reading 1
Proverbs 9:1-6
Wisdom has built her house,
she has set up her seven columns;
she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine,
yes, she has spread her table.
She has sent out her maidens; she calls
from the heights out over the city:
“Let whoever is simple turn in here;
To the one who lacks understanding, she says,
Come, eat of my food,
and drink of the wine I have mixed!
Forsake foolishness that you may live;
advance in the way of understanding.”
Gospel
John 6:51-58
Jesus said to the crowds:
“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 Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food,
and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him.
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 the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
One quick thought-- while reading the from proverbs I kept wondering where is "Wisdom's house"? I kept thinking that I would love to go get some wisdom but where do I go? I really don't think that this is an invitation to open a book and study, I feel like it is the Lord saying, "Come to Me and I will give you wisdom freely". Is that a wrong understanding?
ReplyDeleteNick, I think you're totally right. "To the one who lacks understanding, she says, Come, eat of my food." As an academic, I tend to assume that you have to be smart and read real hard to grow in wisdom. Not so. (Indeed, insofar as such things give birth to pride, they inhibit wisdom.)
ReplyDeleteWe could scour the Book of Proverbs for other indications about where to find Wisdom's house, but I notice two things in this short reading: "She calls from the heights out over the city." So we don't have to leave the city and look for her in some obscure place; she calls to us where we are.
Second, she tells us, "Forsake foolishness that you may live." A lot of times we think about wisdom like intellectual knowledge. If I can do a calculus problem this morning, I know calculus, even if I don't think about the subject all afternoon. In fact, so long as I still can do calculus, I don't actually need to do it to know how. But wisdom is not like that; it's something that needs to be lived, more like a healthy lifestyle, in that regard. So when Lady Wisdom tells us to forsake foolishness, I think she's telling us that it's largely about cutting out the lows. Not that fun is not allowed or that silliness is prohibited, but there should be a purposefulness and holy seriousness about our lives. Spending all day taking stupid Facebook quizzes or watching Real World is going to undermine your efforts elsewhere to grow in wisdom. Reach for the heights, yes, but also "forsake foolishness."