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Jesus talks about the importance of being on good terms with our neighbor. Any antipathy to our neighbor is a capital offense. Love for our neighbor sometimes can even take precedence over the defense of our own rights.
We love, Scripture says, because God first loved us (see 1 John 4:19). That’s also why praying is so vital—because God’s love melts our chill, sparks our desire, ignites our love.
Jesus tells the crowds that he himself will be true food and drink for them. Jesus the living bread will give them eternal life.
The purpose of the law and the prophets was to foster and deepen our relationship with God. Jesus and his teaching bring the law and the prophets to a whole new level of meaning and intensity.
Just as salt and light do not have their effect through words, so also the effectiveness of the disciple does not arise so much from what we say as from our general savor, and from the rays of illumination we put forth.
READ
JN 6:51-58
Jesus said to the Jewish 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?”
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UNDERSTAND
by Father Greg Friedman, OFM
The Beatitudes constitute a summary of what the Christian life is supposed to be: openness to God and generosity to our neighbor. Everything else is a derivative of these fundamental directions.
It is not important to be important Jesus says. By the widow’s expression of total dependence on God she stands higher in the sight of God than all the scribes and religious leaders.
In Psalm 110 David refers to the Messiah as “my Lord.” How can the Messiah be more than David and yet be David’s son? It’s a complicated question that involves scriptural interpretation and popular understanding about the Messiah and the significance of David.
Keeping the commandments is not a matter of observing a set of rules. It’s a matter of loving God and carrying out the consequences of that love.
