A couple of years ago, I joined some priest friends in reading and discussing a book called Words Without Allow, A Biography of the Lectionary for Mass. We were interested in the project that faced the Church in the 1960s when Vatican II called for more scripture at Mass. How does one expand a set of readings that had been set for centuries upon centuries? What scheme for including various parts of the Bible? What discussions happened in those meetings, around those tables?

Honestly, it was some of the most tedious reading we’ve ever done. Well researched, carefully presented, but extremely tedious.

I think of that book—and that immense project of renewing the set up for Sunday Mass readings—as we launch these summer weeks into reading John’s gospel—one glorious chapter of John’s gospel, to be exact. Why John? Why now—and not at Eastertime when we also hear from John? Where did Mark—that gospel we’ve been hearing since Advent—disappear? It’s an easy answer: Mark is the shortest gospel. He shares many stories that Matthew and Luke will tell in others years. We needed filler. And John 6 provides extraordinarily rich filler. Because John 6 focuses on the Eucharist—that most blessed Sacrament that Vatican II calls “the source and summit of the Christian life.”

Pay attention to these words from John. Let them propel us to the mystery Jesus gave us, his own Body and Blood for our food and drink. Read, listen to that we might offer and dine at the Lord’s table and altar.