Wisdom invites the simple and those without understanding to the banquet of eternal life. But how can the unwise comprehend what is offered to them?
In a like manner Jesus offers Himself as food for eternal life and is confronted with ignorance. His invitation is understandable only in the light of Divine Wisdom. The unwise quarrel among themselves, “How can He give us His flesh to eat?” Within the world of foolishness this is a perfectly understandable objection.
But God’s Wisdom, incarnate in Jesus Christ, does not even acknowledge the objection. Instead He stresses all the more sternly “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you.”
We are offered eternal life, whoever refuses this offer will not be raised on the last day. The only explanation offered to this great mystery is that as the Son lives through the Father “so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.”
There have been many men who are counted wise that cannot accept the incomprehensibility of the Trinity. We are all confronted with the challenge of accepting ultimate life only through the power of this mystery. God’s love has never been withheld from the unwise or short sighted. But rather than working with us to reach a gradual understanding, God confronts us at the outset with an absolute truth.
We must watch carefully, that we live “not as foolish persons, but as wise.”
Pax Vobiscum
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time