20th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B - The Eucharist & “Hail, Queen of Heaven”

The Wisdom of God has prepared a feast as we hear in this weekend’s First Reading (Prov. 9:1-6). We must become like children to hear and accept this invitation for in every Eucharist, it is the folly of the Cross that is represented and renewed. To the world, it is foolishness to believe that the crucified Jesus rose from the dead. For many, like the crowds in this weekend’s Gospel, it is foolishness—maybe even madness—to believe that Jesus can give us his Flesh to eat.

Jesus repeats himself with gathering intensity in the Gospel (Jn. 6:51-58). Notice the repetition of the words “eat” and “drink,” and “my Flesh” and “my Blood.” To heighten the unbelievable realism of what Jesus asks us to believe, John in these verses uses not the ordinary Greek word for eating but a cruder term, once reserved to describe the “gnawing” of feeding animals. Yet the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom. Fear of the Lord, the desire to live by His will, is the beginning of true wisdom, Paul says in today’s Epistle (Eph. 5:15-20). And as we sing in today’s Psalm (Ps. 34), those who fear Him shall not want for any good thing.

In each liturgy, we are called to renew our faith in the Eucharist, to forsake the foolishness of believing only what we can see with our eyes. We approach not only an altar prepared with bread and wine, but the feast of Wisdom, the banquet of heaven —in which God our Savior renews His everlasting covenant and promises to destroy death forever. Let us make the most of our days in the Eucharist, giving thanks to God for everything in the name of Jesus, the bread come down from heaven.

In honor of the recent Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Aug.15), we present our latest video "Hail, Queen of Heaven (The Ocean Star)”, a Marian hymn written by Father John Lingard, a Catholic priest and historian, in the 1700's.

A ship was an early Christian symbol and the word "nave", which is used to describe the main body of a church, is from the medieval Latin word navis, meaning "ship", possibly with some reference to the ‘Ship of St Peter’ or the ‘Ark of Noah’. In times of triumph and trouble, may we turn to the Mother of Christ, the Ocean Star, as the intercessor for our every need.

Video can be watched by clicking here or on the picture below: