The Universal Church celebrates Sunday, August 12, 2024, as the nineteenth Sunday in ordinary time, year B. In the Entrance Antiphon, we pray: “Look to your covenant, O Lord, and forget not the life of your poor ones forever. Arise, O God, and defend your cause, and forget not the cries of those who seek you. Amen.”
In the first reading from the First Book of Kings, the prophet Elijah finds himself deserted, utterly discouraged, and prays to God for death. But at this crucial moment, God sends an angel to him as a helper who feeds him with bread and strengthens him for the long journey across the desert. As God strengthens Elijah for the journey to the holy mountain, so does Christ strengthen us by his word, which he gives us in the Eucharist, the bread of life. In the Second Reading from Ephesians, Saint Paul gives some guidelines for leading a true Christian life. We will be authentic Christians only to the extent that we are faithful to the words of Christ. In the Gospel, Saint John continues his Discourse of Christ as the Bread of Life by linking faith and the Eucharist. As the Word of God is the bread of faith, so the Word made Flesh becomes the food of immortality for all who eat it in faith.
First Reading: 1 Kings 19: 4-8.
Elijah went a day's journey into the desert, until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it. He prayed for death saying: "This is enough, O Lord! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers." He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree, but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat. Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake and a jug of water. After he ate and drank, he lay down again, but the angel of the Lord came back a second time, touched him, and ordered, "Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!" He got up, ate, and drank; then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.
Comment
There are two books of Kings in the Bible, commonly known as First and Second Kings. The African Bible tells us that the two Books of Kings cover about four centuries of Israel’s history, marked by three main events: the first is the united monarchy (during which time Israel and Judah remained united under Solomon as they had been under Saul and David); the second event is the divided monarchy (from the rebellion of Israel against the rulership of the Judean kings until Israel was carried off into captivity by the Assyrians); and the third is the period of the surviving kingdom, which record Judah’s history from the deportation of Israel to Judah’s own defeat and exile by the Babylonians.
Both Books of Kings serve, therefore, as a record of the kings of both Israel and Judah, showing the decline of the northern and southern kingdoms and pointing out the reasons for this decline and the fate of each king. The sacred author seems to have intended to teach the people of Israel in exile in Babylon the reasons for their plight so that they could learn from the errors of the past. He instructs the exiles by demonstrating to them that through their kings they have been unfaithful to God’s covenant but that God, far from abandoning Israel, has remained loyal and patient with them.
Two prophets play a significant role in the Books of King: Elijah and Elisha. Elijah was a very courageous man, who did not hesitate to denounce the abuses of power and the violation of justice by those in authority. He had to flee from the fury of those in power to take refuge in the desert. That is where he received God’s command to anoint Elisha as his successor. Elisha is important to Elijah because he will carry on Elijah’s mission. He is to Elijah what Joshua is to Moses, each completing his master’s work
The final chapters of the First Book of Kings are dominated by the prophet Elijah, in many ways the greatest of God’s prophetic champions. Elijah’s mission and achievement were the triumph of true worship over idolatry in the northern kingdom of Israel. His arch-enemy is Queen Jezebel, a spirited missionary for the gods of her native Phoenicia.
In this day’s reading, Elijah is shown fleeing from Jezebel into the desert. He is worn out and depressed at the apparent futility of his work and pleads with God to end his life. God instead sends his angel to give Elijah food to eat and he gains enough strength to walk forty days and forty nights to reach Mount Horeb, where God had signed the covenant with Moses.
What do I take from this reading? Elijah’s walk to the mountain represents my own journey through life in which I too experience all kinds of hardships, temptations and fatigue. At times, like Elijah, I find myself without hope. That is when the Church comes in to invite me back to hope by nourishing me with the Eucharist, Christ himself. In the Eucharist, as we hear in the Gospel reading of this day, I find the strength to continue on this pilgrimage through life. Holy Spirit, continue to nourish me on this journey that is leading me to my Father's house in heaven. Amen.
Second Reading: Ephesians 4: 30-5:2.
Brothers and sisters: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.
Comment
Over the past few Sundays, we have listened to Saint Paul appealing to the Ephesians to maintain the unity of the Church in the face of factors making for division – internal discord, misuse of the different gifts and charisms with which Christ has endowed them, and the danger of being led astray by heretical ideas.
He has been telling them, and us, that such unity is only possible if Christians imitate and put Christ in their daily lives. The Christian, who has been configured to Christ by Baptism, is called to holiness and therefore should not lead a dissolute life alienated from God, as the Gentiles do. The “futility of their minds” has led them away from God, the source of all truth (Rom 1: 18-32).
In today’s reading, Paul urges his converts of Ephesus, and us, not to grieve the Holy Spirit, who unites us in Christ’s mystical body. The Holy Spirit dwells in the souls of believers from Baptism and is reinforced when they receive Confirmation and the other Sacraments.
When the Apostle tells us not to let bitterness and anger rule our lives, he is calling for forgiveness, which leads us to treat our neighbor as our brother or sister. Saint Matthew tells us that if we are making our offering at the altar and remember that our brother or sister has something against us, we have to leave our offering at the altar and go and reconcile with them first, then we can come back and God will be happy with our offering (Mt 5: 23-24).
Our Lord himself has shown us what forgiving our neighbor really means. In the midst of torture and unimaginable cruelty, he still asks his Father to forgive those who condemn and nail him to the cross.
Brothers and sisters, let us therefore be imitators of Christ, the embodiment of forgiveness. God’s forgiveness, as we see in the parable of the Prodigal Son, does not reduce the wrongdoer into servitude but rather reaffirms his worth as his son or daughter. This is what someone has called “appreciative grace”.
We know from experience that there is a kind of forgiveness which is used to humiliate others by exploiting people’s shame. This is when we keep reminding people of their past sins to make them feel bad. Then we take delight in telling them that we have forgiven them. That is not the forgiveness Paul is writing about. He is talking about the forgiveness that opens people up to new possibilities. He himself experienced this kind of forgiveness when Christ forgave him even though he was a persecutor of the faith. Christ’s forgiveness brought Paul to the light of faith. That is the forgiveness that is readily and freely given. God is a professional forgiver and the only way we too can become professional forgivers is by forgiving readily. Holy Spirit, come to us and teach us to forgive through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Gospel acclamation: “Alleluia, alleluia. I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord; whoever eats this bread will live forever. Alleluia.”
Gospel: John 6: 41-51.
The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven," and they said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, 'I have come down from heaven?'" Jesus answered and said to them, "Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."
Comment
Today’s reading brings us to the heart of Saint John’s Discourse of the Bread of Life. Christ forcefully reminds us that we need to receive him in Holy Communion to participate in the divine life, to overcome temptations, and to foster and nourish the life of grace born in us through Baptism. Whoever receives Communion in a state of grace participates in the fruits of the Holy Mass and obtains benefits that are proper and specific to the reception of the sacraments. He receives Christ himself, the source of all grace, really and spiritually. Thus, the Holy Eucharist is the greatest sacrament, the centre and summit of all the rest.
However, as Saint Paul warns his Corinthian converts, and through them all of us, “Whoever ... eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. (..). For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgement upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died” (1 Cor 11: 27-30).
There is no greater joy in this life than to receive our Lord. In the Eucharist, Christ gives himself to us completely. The Eucharist is for the spiritual life what food is for the life of the body. Just as food strengthens us and prevents weakness and death, so the Holy Eucharist frees us from venial sins, which weaken and debilitate the soul, and preserves us from mortal sin.
Because we have many weaknesses we should frequently seek the Master in Holy Communion. We should therefore place the Mass at the center of our day. Blessed Pope Paul VI tells us, in his Encyclical, Mysterium Dei, that the visit to the Blessed Sacrament is a very beneficial practice, a manifestation of our gratitude, a sign of the love and adoration we have for our Lord. There is no better place than to be before the Tabernacle for those intimate, personal conversations that are required for permanent union with Christ. As we stand before him in prayer, the Lord sees us and hears us with greater intimacy.
We have the most personal experience of God in the Eucharist. There, Christ comes to us and touches our hearts. Jesus, “the bread of life”, the “living bread” becomes our bread. He puts these beautiful words in the mouth of the evangelist John: “I am the bread of life which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh” (Jn 6:51).
The Eucharist is a free gift. The Fathers of Vatican II call it “the very heartbeat of the Christian community”. Saint Ignatius of Antioch calls the Eucharist “the medicine of immortality”. Let us make frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament through a good confession. We ask the Holy Spirit to guide us in our search for immortality in the Lord through the Eucharist. Amen.
Comments