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Connections&
August 13, 2000
19th Sunday of the Year
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever.
John 6:41-51
'Sing my soul& "
In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., includes the story of a 72-year-old black woman who walked great distances every day rather than ride on segregated buses in Montgomery, Alabama. The many miles she walked during those difficult days put quite a strain on the woman's tired old body, but she continued to join her neighbors in the boycott. Asked why she continued to protest, she gave this ungrammatical but profound response: "My feets is tired, but my soul is at rest."
CONNECTION: To possess the life of God is to both be open to and make possible moments of grace -- moments when the great love of God is especially real to us and when we can make God's love real for others. God's grace is manifested in so many ways: in acts of justice, compassion and reconciliation, however small and unheralded, that transform our world in God's peace and joy; in the kindness and love of those who are consumed by God's inexplicable love; in prayer and sacrament, especially the Eucharist of God's own Son; in the many gifts of creation, from the food that sustains us to the light of the sun that warms us. Jesus, the "bread of life," invites us to approach life as God's great feast--a "banquet" of grace that should fill our souls with joyful gratitude to the feast's Creator and move us to the joy of sharing the "gifts of the table" with others. <
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