Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Jn. 6:41-51) “Living Bread”
Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Jn. 6:41-51) “Living Bread”
Jesus was a traveling preacher. He gives sermons in the Gospel accounts. Sometimes they are called discourses. Jesus’ major discourse in the first three Gospels (called the Synoptic Gospels) is the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew, Mark and Luke read like a short story.
The Gospel of John is different. In John’s Gospel lengthy speeches by Jesus predominate. Sometimes the material is written in prose. Jesus can speak for chapter after chapter. He talks extensively about being the Good Shepherd. He gives a farewell discourse that lasts from chapter 14-17 in John. And then we have the Bread of life Discourse that we will read from for the next several weeks. The key phrase in that discourse of course is that Jesus is the “bread of life.” How are we to interpret that? How does bread give life?
We might get a clue by looking at our first lesson today. We read about the prophet Elijah. He lived hundreds of years before Jesus. He was one of the greatest of the prophets. We hear in the first reading that he is on the run. He has just performed his greatest miracle. He has called down fire from heaven to consume a great sacrifice as thousands look on. The prophets of the God, Baal had been unable to perform this feat. But Elijah does. He proves there is one true God. We would think he would have been a hero, but King Ahab and Queen Jezebel want to destroy him.
Elijah flees for his life. He is despondent. He lays down under a tree. Despairing, Elijah prays for death. But God won’t let him die. He sends an angel with food, heavenly food. God isn’t a God who encourages dejection. God doesn’t want us to give up on life. God is a God who wants us to make the most of life. Eucharist is food for this life. And the Eucharist is food that points toward everlasting life.
God has placed his love in our hearts. God loves us first. If we understand this it affects how we view life. As modern people, we know how sight works scientifically. Light waves come into our body through our eyes. The light hits the retina which is like a movie screen. After a complex process we see what is going on around us. We usually are affected by what we see. Some things we see make us glad. Other things we see make us despondent. We react to the light that comes to us from events outside ourselves.
Ancients saw sight differently. We might say they were wrong scientifically but probably were right spiritually. The ancients believed light came from within a person flowing outward. Christians believed the same thing. The knowledge that God loves us is planted in our hearts when we are conceived. The realization that God loves is an overwhelming force that wells up from within. God’s spirit moves up and out through our eyes. And the oneness we feel because of our relationship with God colors all we see. Light comes from within. A Christian that is seeing with 20/20 vision sees life as promising. Fear is dispelled.
Prayer is very important if we are going to see correctly. Prayer refines our vision. We could say a healthy prayer life is like putting on glasses. The fuzziness is gone. We see clearly.
Jesus says he can be our bread of life. He can be the hope we feed on. We need to hear that message. Everyone needs to hear it. During the past week we had a program where we talked about how the church can minister to families touched by suicide. One of the striking statistics that was shared is that the rate of people taking their own life is on the rise. In our country, the riches country in the world, a country with abundant health care, we have over 50,000 people take their own life every year. Some say life isn’t worth living. If we just take in the information that flows from the world around us, we might think this is sometimes correct. Giving up on life has been a struggle throughout history. People lay down like Elijah does in the first reading saying, “I give up.”
But God places life giving bread before us every time we come to Mass just like he did with Elijah. Eucharist reminds us that God wants us to live our life to the fullest. We need to take care of ourselves in body, mind and spirit. We need to pay attention to the loving voice within, remembering, Jesus says, “I am with you.” If we do, hopefully we will see the truth and the truth will free us from anything that would disturb us. As Julian of Norwich the great Christian mystic, a great woman of prayer reassures us, “All will be well.”
Reflection Questions:
1.) How does my spiritual state affect how I see the world? Am I more positive?
2.) Does my prayer life help me to see better? Why or why not?
Dear Parishioners,
Last week we had a Parish Council meeting. We followed up on our goal setting meeting in July. We have several priorities for the upcoming year.
One of our goals is to establish a family life committee. We have a good number of young families who have joined our parish. Young families are attracted to Sacred Heart because Seton School is on our campus and because we have strong religious education classes.
Our parish council would like to have families become more involved in parish life. We would like to encourage spiritual and social opportunities for such families.
We hear how the church is losing younger people. If younger people experience a loving supportive community in their parish this could change their lives. We all need a web of relationships in our life. Social media cannot fulfill this need.
If you are approached about helping with this effort, please consider this seriously. It will require fresh ideas and new people to take a leadership position. The parish council realizes that we can’t always predict what young adults and married couples desire. We need input from this section of our parish population if a Family Life Committee is going to be a success.
May our Lady of Peace pray for us,
Fr. Mark