We continue our readings in the 16th
chapter of John’s Gospel this morning.
In the last few weeks, we’ve seen Jesus feed the hungry crowds by multiplying
the loaves & the fish, we've heard him talk about how he is the bread of
heaven that gives us eternal life. Yet,
even this week, the crowd is still murmuring with discontent about how this
lowly carpenter's son thinks he can lecture them about having been sent from
heaven by God, his father. Today's
readings give us an opportunity to think about what it really means for us to
receive Christ as the bread of life in our day-to-day reality, how it can
transform our lives.
As we hear Jesus talk to the crowd
about the bread of life in the midst of its grumbling, we see God feeding
the prophet Elijah in equally exasperating circumstances that may seem
applicable to our own lives. Elijah's
journey as God's prophet has led him to confront King Ahaz & Queen Jezebel
for turning their backs on God in favor of the Phoenician God Baal. Elijah has had the false prophets of Israel
slain and now is threatened with death by Jezebel. Elijah is distraught; he feels alone because
no one is listening to his message. In
his despair, Elijah cries out to God. He
prays for his own death, resting underneath a broom tree in the middle of his
journey through the desert.
How often do we feel desperate and
distraught like Elijah during our own journeys of faith? How often do we want to get closer to God, do
we want to be nourished by his daily bread, but it is just not coming together
for us? I remember being a missionary in
Ecuador, being frustrated by bouts with malaria & pneumonia that consumed
all my energy, when I had to journey back to my mission site in the middle of
the jungle after having spent 2 weeks in the hospital in the capital city of
Quito. I realized how much the El Nino
storm system was affecting us there in Ecuador when our bus stopped in the
middle of the jungle to see the road entirely washed out by a sea of mud. We were on the beginning of the bus ride
through the jungle; in optimal conditions, it took at least 4 hours by bus. At
this point, somehow I was convinced by the other passengers that the smart
thing to do was to take off on foot, that we would find a break in the mud
& find transportation to continue our journey. After trudging through mud that went past our
knees for over 2 hours, then going about an hour in a pickup truck with a road
crew, I found myself in the mud in the middle of the jungle in complete
darkness as night had fallen. As I
became separated from the others in the group while my companions journeyed
ahead of me, & I stopped dead in my tracks.
Like Elijah, I didn't know where to turn. In my fear & despair, I started to cry. I
really didn't know what would happen to us.
Around this time, I heard the others yelling my name; I pulled myself
together and eventually caught up with them.
We finally made it back to our village, but there were points along that
journey when I thought I would have to knock on someone's door and ask to sleep
on the floor. As I found the courage to continue my trek through the jungle, as I was
fed by my faith and my missionary work, Elijah was awakened twice by the
angel of the Lord to be fed in order to have the strength to continue on his
journey.
Like Elijah, we probably all have
experienced moments on our journeys of faith where all we want to do is give
up. That's what I felt like trudging
through the mud in the jungle. At such
moments, it's easier to grumble and complain, rather than find the faith &
courage to continue. That's where we
find the Jewish leaders in today's Gospel; rather than trying to understand
what Jesus really means by saying that he is the new bread from heaven, they
would rather complain & grumble.
They are confused, because they know Jesus & his parents. Who does
he think he is saying he is bread from heaven?
The Jewish leaders were thinking: Isn't Jesus just human, fleshing and
blood like us?
Think of the details of our own
journey; we all have moments of despair and anxiety; we all have things we
grumble about; we all have things, big and small , that can keep us from God,
that can keep us from the daily bread that Jesus wants to give us on our journey. Jesus presents himself as the bread of life,
as the living bread from heaven that will allow us to live forever. This bread feeds us here on earth, but it
also transcends our earthly existence.
As such, Christ tells us that the sustenance of his life is to be made a
part of our lives. Through the daily bread we receive, through the Eucharist we
partake of in our community of faith, we receive Christ into our lives. Christ's life and our lives are co-mingled in
the holy communion in which we partake.
The message of today's Gospel is
central to what we believe as Catholics: that Jesus is the life of the world
given to us by the Father, that the salvation that Jesus gives to us as the
bread of life is an extension of God's act of creation, as the ministry, death,
and resurrection of Jesus ushers in a new time and a new creation for us as his
followers. We receive Christ as the
bread of life through the initiative of the Father. The bread of life we receive gives us the
strength and sustenance to continue on our journey of faith here on earth, just
as the bread the Lord provided to Elijah gave him sustenance, just as the manna
of heaven allowed the Israelites to continue on their journey. However, the bread of life in Christ that we
receive also points to the fulfillment of God's kingdom that is to come, when a
new heaven & a new earth will appear.
We live with faith in that promise of the kingdom to come. However, we
also live sustained by the daily bread that allows us to proclaim the kingdom
of God that is already present in our lives.
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