{"id":37291,"date":"2015-07-18T01:42:25","date_gmt":"2015-07-18T01:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/?p=37291"},"modified":"2015-07-20T08:43:23","modified_gmt":"2015-07-20T08:43:23","slug":"devotional-thoughts-for-the-8th-sunday-after-pentecost-19th-jul-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/?p=37291","title":{"rendered":"Devotional Thoughts for the 8th Sunday after Pentecost – 19th Jul 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading: From the Gospel according to St. John 6: 47-59<\/span>
\nDear and Respected Brethren,<\/span>
\nIn today\u2019s reading, we find our Lord giving great importance to Holy<\/span>
\nEucharist. In verse 47 we read, \u201cverily verily I say unto you, He that<\/span>
\nbelieves on me has everlasting life. When we read about the love of<\/span>
\nthe Father, who sent his only begotten son, it is clearly mentioned<\/span>
\nthat the incarnation of our Lord itself is to grant the everlasting<\/span>
\nlife for one and all. (St. John 3:16) In the next sentence our Lord is<\/span>
\nintroducing himself as the bread of life. Our Lord\u2019s sincere ambition<\/span>
\nto enter in each and everyone forced him to accept the bread, which is<\/span>
\nthe usual food of people of all classes; faiths will not hesitate to<\/span>
\naccept the normal food. And hence our Lord selected the normal food as<\/span>
\na means to enter into the lives of you and me. In verse 49, our Lord<\/span>
\nexplains the difference between the normal food and the bread of<\/span>
\nHeaven and our earthly food. Manna was rained among the sons of<\/span>
\nAbraham on their way to the Promised Land. Our Lord is mentioning<\/span>
\nabout their spiritual death, even when they had eaten the Manna. The<\/span>
\nbody and blood of our Lord saves the faithful who would partake from<\/span>
\nit from the spiritual death. Here our Lord is telling about the<\/span>
\ngreatness of the Holy Sacrament of Eucharist. The Holy Eucharist is<\/span>
\ngranted to us as His blessed body and blood. Now more people are<\/span>
\npartaking the Holy Eucharist in our Churches in India and abroad since<\/span>
\nwe are allowed to do so after having the absolution. We should not<\/span>
\nmisuse it as a license to accept the Holy mysteries without proper<\/span>
\npreparation, prayer, meditation and attention. Every time we might<\/span>
\naccept the Holy Eucharist, we have to pray earnestly to redeem us from<\/span>
\nwrath and to enable us to enjoy the forgiveness of our sins.<\/span>
\nIn today’s reading we find the teaching of our Lord and Savior about<\/span>
\nHis flesh and blood which would enable one and all to inherit the<\/span>
\neternal life with Him. The topic of discourse was a very difficult<\/span>
\ntopic for the listeners of that occasion. Do we also come across such<\/span>
\na situation when we would attempt to partake the Holy mysteries? Or do<\/span>
\nwe accept the Holy Eucharist every week with the staunch faith that it<\/span>
\nis the flesh and blood of our Lord and Savior? The advantage of<\/span>
\npartaking the Holy Eucharist depends upon the faith of the individual.<\/span>
\nIn verse 47 we read “Verily verily, I say unto you, He that believes<\/span>
\non me has everlasting life”. We have to examine our own faith and its<\/span>
\nvolume in us, at the every chance we use to partake the Holy<\/span>
\nEucharist. How we could believe in Lord Jesus? We must realize the<\/span>
\ndeepness of God’s love in saving us from the bondage of sins and<\/span>
\ndeath. That is what is said in St. John 3:16. In verse 48 our Lord<\/span>
\ndeclares that He is the bread of life. When our Lord established the<\/span>
\nHoly Eucharist as a means of salvation of the future generations, our<\/span>
\nLord selected the bread and wine, the usual food and drink of ordinary<\/span>
\npeople of those days. Our Lord said “my body is the real food and my<\/span>
\nblood is the real drink”. Can anyone accept the raw meat and blood?<\/span>
\nOur Lord wanted to enter in you and me at least through our usual<\/span>
\nfood, which no one would hesitate. That is why our Lord selected the<\/span>
\nbread and wine as the matter for holy mysteries. As per our Lord’s<\/span>
\ncommand to continue the same until his second coming, the Holy Church<\/span>
\nis continuing the same process of salvation with due reverence and awe<\/span>
\nfeeling. Our Church teaches that the Holy mysteries get changed as the<\/span>
\nflesh and blood of our Lord, through the Holy Spirit, who dwells upon<\/span>
\nthe Holy mysteries during the worship. (Though there is no change for<\/span>
\nthe matter, it is believed that the mysteries do become the flesh and<\/span>
\nblood of our Lord by God’s grace)<\/span>
\nWhen our Lord taught the only one prayer, He insisted to pray for the<\/span>
\ndaily bread. Our Lord wanted us to have a “come-in-union” (It became<\/span>
\ncommunion later) with Lord God on all possible occasions. So He<\/span>
\ninsisted and taught us to pray for the daily bread or to get the bread<\/span>
\nevery day. When we say this prayer in Malayalam, many use the term<\/span>
\n“Ahaaram” instead of “appam”. We should not forget that the ahaaram is<\/span>
\nfor the worldly life and the appam is for the spiritual life. So<\/span>
\nkindly use “njangalkku aavasyamulla appam innum tharaname”. When our<\/span>
\nLord said that he is the bread of life and the one who has come down<\/span>
\nfrom heaven, the Jews strove among themselves, saying how he could<\/span>
\ngive us his flesh to eat. We might also have some or other doubts like<\/span>
\nthis. We must try to avoid all sorts of doubts like this, keeping a<\/span>
\nstaunch faith in our Lord. When our Lord heard about the doubt of the<\/span>
\nJews, he said that they could not have life in them unless they would<\/span>
\neat the flesh of the son of Man and drink the blood of the son of Man.<\/span>
\nIn verse 54 our Lord promises additionally to raise all those who<\/span>
\nmight eat his flesh and drink his blood on the last day. In Verse 55<\/span>
\nwe read, \u201cFor my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.<\/span>
\nHere our Lord is explaining why he has selected the normal food and<\/span>
\ndrink as means instead of his flesh and blood. Our Lord was sure that<\/span>
\nnot even a single person on earth would deny the normal food and<\/span>
\ndrink. So he decided to enter into the lives of each and every one of<\/span>
\nthe human beings, through the normal food and drink at least. We know<\/span>
\nwhat happens to our normal food immediately after our consumption. The<\/span>
\ndigestive system converts them as blood and the small veins take the<\/span>
\ngood portion of our food as blood into the nerves system. And blood is<\/span>
\nthe life giving part of the body. This is what happens exactly to the<\/span>
\nHoly Eucharist that we consume. It turns as the blood of Lord Jesus<\/span>
\nand mixes with the blood in our body. When the blood of Lord Jesus is<\/span>
\nadded to our human body, our human blood gets purified and gets<\/span>
\nconverted as Lord\u2019s blood. In other words, our life turns to be the<\/span>
\nlife of our Lord. That is what we are reading in verse 56<\/span>
\nWhen the Scribes and Pharisees whispered “how he could give us his<\/span>
\nflesh to eat” our Lord told them: “unless you partake my flesh and<\/span>
\nblood, you will not have life in you.” (Verse 52-53) We often forget<\/span>
\nthe fact that our spirituality is weak because we are not particular<\/span>
\nto have Holy Communion of having His flesh and blood. We must make it<\/span>
\na practice to have regular partaking of Holy Eucharist. 54th verse is<\/span>
\nso promising. “One who eats my flesh and drinks my blood will have<\/span>
\neternal life and on the last day I will raise him\/her”. What else we<\/span>
\nneed? Think and do the needful. See verse 56. He that eats my flesh<\/span>
\nand drinks my blood dwells in me and I in him”. (kindly read Isaiah<\/span>
\n57:15, Romans 8:9, I Cori. 3: 16, and 2 Cori 6: 16)<\/span>
\nOur Lord says that He is the bread that came from heaven and<\/span>
\ndifferentiates himself with Manna, a sort of bread which was granted<\/span>
\nto the children of Abraham during the days of their pilgrimage through<\/span>
\nthe wilderness. Our Lord establishes that the heavenly bread is good<\/span>
\nenough to grant us eternal life. In verse 57 we read, \u201cAs the living<\/span>
\nFather has sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eats me, even<\/span>
\nshall live by me.\u201d Here we must ascertain where we live after<\/span>
\nconsuming the Holy Eucharist. Are we living with\/ near our Lord or are<\/span>
\nwe staying far away from our Lord. Are we not supposed to live more<\/span>
\nclosely with our Lord, instead of living as we like? We often maintain<\/span>
\nspirituality on Sundays only. When we are out of the Church compound,<\/span>
\nwe feel that we are in some other world. Let us try to put an end to<\/span>
\nsuch life styles. Let us adopt a life with Jesus Christ, our Lord and<\/span>
\nGod, while we are in the house, church and society.<\/span>
\nThe Holy Church honors the sacrament of Holy Eucharist as the crown of<\/span>
\nall sacraments and it is taught that unless and until the Holy<\/span>
\nEucharist is administered, all other sacraments would not be complete.<\/span>
\nLet us examine our usual response to the Holy\u00a0 Eucharist. Let us<\/span>
\nanalyze how far we are trustworthy to the divine blessing.<\/span>
\nMay God bless us to make use of the heavenly bread always.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jose Kurian Puliyeril<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading: From the Gospel according to St. John 6: 47-59 Dear and Respected Brethren, In today\u2019s reading, we find our Lord giving great importance to Holy Eucharist. In verse 47 … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotional-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37292,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37291\/revisions\/37292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}