This week’s scripture readings invite us to reflect on wisdom, living lives worthy of our calling, and taking the opportunity to learn from wisdom and the profound mystery of the Bread of Life. These three things are interwoven in a way that challenges us to embrace a fuller understanding of our faith and our relationships with God and one another.
In scripture, wisdom is personified as a gracious and welcoming host, symbolizing how divine wisdom invites us to become stable and whole again. Wisdom is not merely a concept; it is an invitation to partake in the richness of life and the nourishing feast that God offers. The Lord invites us to leave our simple ways behind and embrace understanding. He wants us to live and learn from his divine truth by seizing the opportunity to be guided by the Holy Spirit. When we utilize that opportunity, we are assisted in living out our Lord’s teachings, becoming intentional disciples. We work on making decisions that reflect our commitments to God, also becoming examples to others. The daily choices we make matter, and living wisely means discerning how to reflect the values that honor our Lord and impact others as his disciples.
Jesus also reveals himself as the Bread of Life, signaling a profound truth about his role in our lives. Just as wisdom offers us a feast, Jesus offers himself as our spiritual nourishment. We intimately encounter Jesus in the Eucharist, a sacrament that is not a symbol but a genuine sharing in the real presence of his body and blood. It’s through this sacrament that we receive the grace and strength needed to live wisely and walk as children of the light.
So, how can we make more time to live and recognize wisdom, opportunity, and the Bread of Life? We can become more intentional with our everyday practices, set regular reminders to ourselves, start traditions that reflect living the wisdom of Jesus, receive the Bread of Life at Mass, and spend time with Jesus. Most importantly, however, we need to be patient with ourselves and each other. We need to resist the temptation to cancel each other out; instead, we must listen and agree to disagree. What we say and how we say it are important! We have the opportunity to be guided by the Holy Spirit in our speech and to use wisdom to choose our words carefully. Giving ourselves time to recognize these three things and allow them to enter our hearts can make us better disciples. It requires us to be persistent, even in our failings, so we can spend the time with each other that our Lord has given us by carrying out the mission handed to us.
