How many of us have seen the commercials that begin as seen on television? I absolutely believe those. I cannot watch them without wanting to buy something. Am I the only one? If you’re like me, please raise your hand. Thank you. Thank you. But. But I have something shocking to say. And that is, you know, that pineapple corer.
It is not going to make us better people. You know that barbecue thing? You use that copper barbecue shield when it doesn’t work? And two, it didn’t make me good at barbecuing. The promises they made about Apple corers, pans and detergents. It isn’t true. And Saint Paul would probably say of us that we are being foolish when we fall for all of that.
But I do, over and over again. And what I try to remember is an experience that I had while in graduate school, where I was living with a religious community, you know, and the name of their house was the Casa professor, because they were the professed fathers who were to set the example of simplicity, of living poverty, of truly having embraced what the Lord taught.
So I’m living with them. And one Sunday morning, the head of the community of the superior asked me to go to the bakery to pick up the bread. Now, I had never done this before. So when I got there, I was really amazed because the loaves of bread looked like they were two feet long. They were the biggest loaves of bread I’d ever seen in my life.
And I brought them back. And I noticed that Sunday at our main meal, bread was all sliced up. And I thought, well, isn’t that I’ve never noticed that before. But it’s all there. And then on Monday, I noticed that the bread had been toasted. Now that’s interesting. I never noticed that the bread was toasted. And on Tuesday I noticed that we had those pressed panini sandwiches.
I thought, well, this is getting more interesting. I wonder what tomorrow will bring. Tomorrow brought chunks of bread that were put in the tomato sauce. So there was more bread and less pasta. Thursday, the bread had been cubed and toasted and was in the salad Friday, which was a meatless day. There was vegetable soup with chunks of bread in it.
And on Saturday it was bruschetta, toasted bread with tomatoes and olive oil. And I said, isn’t it amazing? Not a bit of that bread goes to waste. How smart is that? That is really smart. Isn’t it amazing that what loaves of bread could be used for all week? Nothing went to waste. That it came about in different forms, but it was the same bread, nourishing us for the entire week.
Isn’t it amazing that in just a moment we are going to take bread blessed and break it. Share it. And what we do this Sunday is going to last all week. It may come about in different forms. It may be that on Monday we’re going to encounter someone who needs us to listen. Do no more. Just listen. But when we remember the bread of Life in the Eucharist that we receive today, we’ll be able to open our ears.
Tuesday might mean that I’m going to come to mass again and get to share the Eucharist. Wednesday may bring about an encounter with the homeless person. And Thursday and Friday and Saturday. And we’re back to Sunday when the grace of the Lord will fill us once again. Isn’t it amazing that none of the grace we receive today will be wasted all week?
Unless we fall for all those voices, all those distractions who are going to tell us that something else is wiser or smarter or better for us, when indeed, in fact, true wisdom comes from the Eucharist. Now, in today’s first reading, we heard the voice of wisdom say to us, forsake foolishness that you may live. Advance in the way of understanding.
That’s wisdom calling to us. And the message of wisdom is very important. Let go of everything foolish. It is exactly what Saint Paul says in our second reading today, to put away that which keeps us from understanding the voice of Christ Jesus. And it really sounds very simple, doesn’t it? Isn’t that kind of wisdom really something we can all understand yet?
How often do we not act with wisdom? How often do we listen to those getting on a bandwagon? Telling us how we should think or react. How often do we run into Barnes and Noble to buy the newest, hottest book from the biggest guru of this day and age, when in fact, every Sunday we gather to hear the words proclaimed by Christ Jesus.
My Buddhist friends often say to me, if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him. And the first time I heard that, I thought it was very confusing, but then it was explained to me. And that is anything that Buddha teaches you. He has already taught you. Anything else will get in the way of you advancing. That’s exactly opposite of what we as Catholics believe, because we say, if you encounter Jesus on the road, recognize him in the breaking of the bread.
And that is exactly what we’re going to do in a moment. Encounter Christ Jesus in the breaking of the bread. Wisdom travels with us. Wisdom comes with us in the Eucharist, and this means that we have to make room in our hearts for the Word of God, for prayer, and especially for the Eucharist. We can’t let our minds and our hearts be cluttered, but our hearts and our minds and our hands are to be used to spread the Word of God.
Christ Jesus boils it down to one very simple lesson for us, and that is to love God and to love our neighbor. Our hope is in salvation in Christ. And the way we find that hope, that salvation is through the Eucharist. In the first reading, wisdom tells us that the table has been prepared for us. The table is prepared for us.
In a moment, we’re going to prepare bread and wine that will become the body and Blood of Christ, and the Eucharist is waiting for us. Nothing can keep us from this invitation unless we let it. In the Psalm we just heard, we are told that goodness acts in our life. How today, through the Eucharist, are we going to allow goodness to flow from us to a waiting world out there?
Who needs us to proclaim the message of hope and salvation like the disciples? Do we find Jesus’s message about eating his flesh and drinking his blood disturbing? Because if we do. Is it because we’re afraid? Afraid that it will change us? That we don’t want to come to the table because we like the foolishness we share? Are we afraid to seek the true wisdom that comes from the bread of life?
Well, we are given a choice to listen to all those voices up there. The ones who say by the pineapple core, you’re going to really love that barbecue grill. You need that new frying pan. It’s not Teflon, but nonstick. Or we can put it aside. We can listen to wisdom that says the table is prepared for you. Come to the banquet.
We can listen to Paul to open our hearts to the saving presence of Christ. We can come to the banquet to be nourished on his body and blood, as in all things foolishness or wisdom. Accepting or rejecting the invitation. Saying yes or no to the encounter to Christ. It’s all up to us. It’s our choice. And today, let our choice be Christ Jesus, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.