Today is the 19th Sunday of ordinary time. Our first reading tells us about the journey of Elijah the servant of God. He went a day’s journey in the desert. He prayed for death saying, “This is enough, O Lord! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” What is happening here with the great servant of the Lord. Elijah? Elijah has just finished his battle with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Jezebel wanted to kill him and he is running for his life. Exhausted in his flight, he cried to God. He poured out his heart to the Lord. How do we pray? Like Elijah, let's tell the Lord the truth and not try to pretend. God knows the depth of our hearts. If you need his mercy, tell him the truth of your sin, if you need his favor or special need, tell him. But do so in faith and trust.
Elijah after prayer went to sleep. God sent his angel to him who touched him and said get up and eat, he got up and saw a scone baked and a jar of water. He ate and drank and went to sleep again. The angel of the Lord came a second time and prepared a meal for Elijah to eat for according to the Angel for the journey will be too long for you. Elijah ate and was strengthened by the food. He walked for forty days and forty nights until he reached God’s mountain, Horeb.
From this story, it’s clear that God was with his servant Elijah. As servants of God which we are, let us know that the Lord is with us in our own journey of life. God sent his angel to provide for Elijah, he was taken care of by the Lord. He ate and was strengthened for the journey. And so, he could travel for forty days and forty nights. Like Jesus who fasted for forty days and forty nights, God sent his angel to provide food for him as well. We can see a similarity between the experience of Elijah and Jesus Christ. Both of them were fed by an angel, Elijah walked for forty days and forty nights and Jesus Christ fasted for forty days and forty nights. The experience of Elijah is pointing to the gospel of today. Like Elijah who needed to eat bread for the strength to walk for forty days and forty nights we too need the bread of life which Jesus is offering to us in our own journey to eternal life.
In the words of Christ Jesus, “I am the bread of life that came from heaven.” The Jews would not accept his claim that he is the bread of life because they know his family, “Is this not the son of Joseph whose father and mother we know.?
Familiarity, it is said, brings contempt. They thought Joseph was the father of Jesus Christ in the same way as others are fathers begetting according to the flesh. St. Augustine said, … and our Lord was not born of the seed of Joseph. However, to the piety and charity of Joseph a son was born to him of the Virgin Mary, who was the Son of God.” Mary conceived Jesus in her womb through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus had only one Father-God himself. Our relationship with Jesus must first be based on faith. Jesus told Thomas after his resurrection, blessed are those who have not seen but yet believe.
Jesus said, Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread…if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.
As the people of Israel ate manna daily, Jesus wants us to eat of his body on a daily basis. That is why he said we should pray to God our father to give us our daily bread. Not ordinary bread, but the Eucharist which comes about through prayer of consecration. According to the Council of Trent in their summary of the Catholic faith, ‘Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation.’
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1376).
As we receive this bread of eternal life, how should we live our lives?
St. Paul has some admonitions for us: Do not grief the Holy Spirit of God.
We should remove from our lives, anger, shouting, reviling and malice. Instead, we should be kind, compassionate and merciful. We should imitate Christ by living in love.