Walking with Jesus:19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

1 Kings 19:4-8; Ephesians 4:30-5:2; John 6:41-51

It is sometimes too hard to follow through on direct orders. I believe it started with my parents telling me to do some chore or something when I wanted to go play with my toys or my friends. I learned discipline but still was not happy with it. This continued in school with the good sisters … they succeeded well. This continued in my seminary training and the priesthood. I learned early that I will always be in a position where someone: parents, teachers, a boss, a school principal, a pastor, a bishop will give orders … my position is to obey. Often these “orders” were met with disagreements but were obeyed.

In today’s readings we see the same situation existed with the Israelites during their sojourn through the desert after God had set them free from the slavery they experienced in Egypt. Paul is telling the Ephesians to listen to how and where God is leading them in this “new religion” of Christianity. And the huge crowds that were fed by Jesus’ miracle of the loaves and fishes just couldn’t understand or agree with His teaching on God’s plan for them, us and the world.

According to the dictionary, when used as an adjective, the word stubborn means being determined to refuse to change one’s attitude or position on something, especially in spite of good arguments or reasons to do so. The thesaurus provides synonyms proving you’re too stubborn to admit it: obstinate, stubborn as a mule, mulish, headstrong, willful, strong-willed, self-willed, pigheaded, difficult, contrary, etc. So I ask: Why do I object to God’s leading me closer to heaven? Why do I question God’s commands who loves me totally, and is leading me to be a person of love? Could it be that this is how Satan tempts us into sinning or is distracting us deliberately away from God or is confusing us about God’s care for us? I answer “yes” to these questions! The readings help us with more clarity.

Elijah gave a dramatic display of God’s power before King Ahab and the people of Mt. Carmel [1 Kings 18]. There had been a terrible drought in Israel coupled with a horrible famine due to the rejection of God’s directives by Ahab and his wife Jezebel. Elijah called the 450 Baal prophets with the directive: “How long will you straddle the issue? If the Lord is God, follow Him; if Baal, follow him” [1 Kings 18:21]. Each group carved up a young bull and asked God to provide fire. No fire came for the Baal prophets. Elijah had water poured again and again on the bull … and, “The Lord’s fire came down and consumed the holocaust, wood, stones, and dust and it lapped up the water in the trench” [1 Kings 18:38]. Elijah then slit the throats of the Baal false prophets and ran out of fear for Jezebel’s revenge. He asks God to take his life, then falls asleep presuming God will do just that. God ignores this prayer and sustains the prophets’ life with food and water. God still needs him to be His messenger. As God needs you and me each day; are we listening?

Paul tells the Ephesians they have been chosen by God and brought into God’s household through Baptism and sealed with the Holy Spirit. He questions if they are living accordingly? If they are not “living in love” as Jesus did, how can the world be able to see God’s love in the church created by God? Their love must be selfless and caring as Jesus. Is our love like that?

Today’s Gospel continues the Bread of Life discourse using the literary device of “misunderstanding;” Jesus makes a statement and the crowd interprets it literally and totally misunderstands its reasoning. How can Jesus be the bread of life? Jesus states that He is the bread that came down from heaven. The crowd said “but we know your family, they are from around here.” Jesus now speaks theologically: that access to God can only come through Jesus. Since He is the Bread from heaven, whoever eats this bread satisfies the ultimate human needs. For believers, this bread is the Eucharist. Only those who listen to God and believe are able to believe further that Jesus has been sent by God and that eating His very flesh, is the bread of life, which leads us to eternal life. The Jews who heard Jesus couldn’t see beyond the material world. They lacked faith and understanding that Jesus was speaking of the Spiritual Bread of Life not the physical bread. Jesus said that He is the Bread of Life not that He gives it to us. Therefore this nourishment Jesus gives us is not temporary but for eternity. Can I let God be God to me?

So I reflect on: 

• Who or what got you through the worst times of this difficult pandemic season? When have you been the “angel bearing a hearth cake?”
• Who brings Jesus into your life? How have you been Christ for others lately?
• The Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins asks where do we see the grandeur of God “flaming out?” Is it only in Church? Do we experience it at others times as well?

Sacred Space 2021 states:

“Here Jesus is appealing to us to be aware of the divine relationships that underpin our loves. More is going on than we realize: we are being made into the daughters or sons of God! There is more to us than meets the eye, no matter how poorly we are responding!

“The Father is always drawing us into divine life because He loves us limitlessly. He does this through Jesus, who is one like us and who tells us what the father has in mind for us. So there are divine Persons busy in our lives, enabling us to become like themselves. If we live within these intimate relationships, then we are already sharing internal life. How wonderful!”