This is one of several Old Testament and, for others than Roman Catholics, apocryphal passages that speak of
Wisdom’s heavenly banquet. This concept forms part of the background of the discourse on the bread of
life in John 6:35-51b (see R. E. Brown on
the “sapiential theme in John
6:35-50” in The Gospel According to John, Anchor Bible Commentary, 1:272-273).
It is perhaps a little unfortunate that this reading should be paired off with John 6:51-58 (The Gospel), where the sapiential
theme falls into the background somewhat (but see Jn 6:58). On the whole, it would pair off better with the gospel reading of the
eighteenth Sunday (Jn 6:24-35), the reference to
Wisdom’s wine preparing for the reference to “thirst” in John 6:35.
In the Book of Proverbs, the present passage forms the close of the prologue on Wisdom. Wisdom and Folly each
invite their prospective participants to a banquet, and they are free to choose which to accept. Our present
reading is Wisdom’s invitation.
Responsorial Psalm:
34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7
A (longer) selection of verses from Psalm
34 was used last Sunday, but with the same refrain (Webmaster note: the fourth stanza from last week
is omitted). As we noted there, this is a wisdom psalm
We now reach the second part of the parenesis of Ephesians. Here we have a section that, whether designedly
or not, quite aptly fits the first reading and its context, namely, the contrast between Wisdom and Folly.
Folly consists in not “making the most of the time” (literally “buying up the
opportunity”) and in drunkenness and debauchery.
This exhortation has an eschatological background: the days are evil and the present age is under the
domination of the evil powers, but their time is short (see Rom 13:11-14). Thus again, though less explicitly, the imperative is rooted in an
indicative: the powers of evil are being vanquished; therefore, live as children of the new age.
The author is then led to contrast intoxication from wine with Pentecostal ecstasy, which expresses itself
here, not in glossolalia, but in the more sober manner of “psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs”—one of the earliest pieces of evidence we have of the use of hymns in the early community.
This passage is thought by some to be part of the Haustafel (household code) that follows, for such
catechetical patterns are sometimes prefaced by an exhortation to perform one’s duty toward the gods (in
the pagan Haustafeln) or to Yhwh (in the Jewish ones).
Here at last we reach the definitely Eucharistic part of the discourse on the bread of life. We move from
bread as such to the flesh and blood of the Son of man. As indicated above on the eighteenth Sunday, we tend
to regard these verses as an addition by a redactor who is himself a member of the Johannine school. We
suggested that the first part is a meditation on the agape-fellowship meal, and the added part a meditation on
the Eucharist proper. The thought moves from the revelation of the incarnate One as the heavenly wisdom to his
sacrificial surrender in the death of the cross.
The redactor seeks to balance the one-sidedness of the evangelist’s Eucharistic theology. The evangelist
appeared to emphasize the incarnation at the expense of the cross, and the agape-fellowship meal and the
proclamation of the word at the expense of the Eucharist. The redactor’s additional material here is
derived from the Supper tradition as it had circulated in the Johannine communities (“this is my
flesh,” “this is my blood,” “eat,” “drink,” and the indication of
the soteriological effects of sacramental eating and drinking).
| Preaching the Lectionary: The Word of God for the Church Today Reginald H. Fuller and Daniel Westberg. Liturgical Press. 1984 (Revised Edition), pp. 334-336. |
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Preaching the Lectionary click picture above.
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from Religious Clip Art for the Liturgical Year (A, B, and C).
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