Fr. Manny Flores, SJ
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 19, 2018
How smart are you?
My father was a very smart man who loved making the smoothest salesman look like a fool.
But about 50 years ago he was conquered by a Philamlife insurance salesman.
He convinced my father about the reliability of his company and made 3 irresistible promises:
1. Should my father die an untimely death, his young family will receive the full face value of the insurance policy.
2. Should my father need money, after 5 years he can withdraw part or the whole amount of the monthly installments he had paid.
3. Should my father still be alive after 30 years, he can withdraw and enjoy the full face value of the insurance policy.
That was 50 years ago. Today besides Philamlife, there are other insurance companies like Sunlife, Manulife, Cocolife and many others?
What is the best insurance policy one can buy today?
The gospel today Jesus talks about the best insurance policy ever: the Bread of Life. Then as now, many find Jesus’ claims and promises ridiculous and abandon Him. Jesus makes the absurd claims that His body is real food, and His blood real drink.
But to those who believe Him, Jesus makes 3 promises. These perhaps are the 3 most important promises in the entire bible.
First, the promise of ETERNAL LIFE
verse 6:54 – “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life”
Jesus does not promise that you will have, or can have, but that you already have it!
Not everything we feel is real, and not everything real we can feel.
But even if you may not feel it, eternal life has begun here and now!
Second, the promise of RESURRECTION
verse 6:54 – “and I will raise Him up on the last day.”
We are promised a new body, immortal and of peerless beauty
that we preview in the risen body of Jesus
and in the splendor of our Mother Mary during her appearances.
Third, the promise of REMAINING
verse 6:56 – “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”
the Greek word “Meno” means “to remain.”
It is a favorite word of the apostle John found 34 times in his gospel 19 times in his letters.
“To remain” means to be in the most intimate relationship with Jesus.
An example is Jn 15:4 – “Remain in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in Me.”
But how can we remain in the vine?
This question that may have bugged us before before is finally answered!
verse 6:56 – “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”
Through the Eucharist we become so intimately united with Jesus.
In this union of life we can think, feel, act, serve, share and sacrifice like Jesus.
Recently, one of my high school classmates (aged 64) died very unexpectedly.
He looked trim, fit and healthy unlike some of my classmates
who looked like regular patrons of all-you-can-eat buffets.
At his age and mine, insurance from Sunlife, Manulife, or Cocolife will no longer really matter.
We will be leaving it all behind. The only insurance that matters is the “Bread of Life.”
My father was 84 years old when my mother died at 77.
During her wake my father told me; “Before your mother got sick,
she and I went to mass every morning continuously for 385 days, rain or shine.”
In his last years my Father found the best insurance one can ever find: “the Bread of Life”
My father was a truly smart man.
How smart are you?