The Bread of Life

1 Kgs 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.

Eph 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.

Jn 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.”

What we hear today in the First Reading is Elijah on the run, or at least he has been. He has been confronting King Ahab and Jezebel. He then had all the false prophets slain. Jezebel makes a promise in a message to Elijah that by tomorrow she will have the dogs to her if by that time they haven’t devoured Elijah.

He is tired and knows he does not have the strength to go on to Mount Horeb. He lies down under the sweeping branches of a tree. The angel visits him twice, wakes him, feeds him and off he goes renewed for the journey. This reminds me of my blog yesterday. It’s similar to my holding on to my rosary or Mom grasping her scapular when we feel overwhelmed by the moment’s events.

If we read farther in the text, we will find that Elijah does reach the holy cave of Mount Horeb, but then hears the whispering voice of God in the breeze inviting him back to face the dogs. But by this time, he has the confidence that God is with him, so he knows that he will succeed.

At Mass this morning, Father Rainwater had a very, very passionate sermon! It had me laughing, crying, bewildered at where he was going with it at some points and amazed at the depth of his message when he explained it. He is a convert, and for some reason I think those that “come home” later in life seem to burn with zeal, and Father Rainwater is no exception.

Last week’s First Reading from Exodus presents the people of Israel complaining about the lack of God’s care in the form of food, as they wandered in the desert. Now, in the Gospel, the Jewish leaders are complaining, because Jesus has told them that He is the new bread come down from heaven. This is quite confusing for them, because they know the mother and father of Jesus.

We are always asking God for more and more. We tend to forget that it is not Jesus’ “job” to keep showing us signs—it is OUR “job” to recognize and love him without the signs! Put another way, it seems like the people in Jesus’ time (and in ours) are only looking for Jesus because they know He will provide for them—they are looking for the ultimate “welfare state”. The want everything for as little as they can get away with. And they want Jesus to provide it. They remind Jesus that Moses fed them manna in the desert. He has to remind THEM that it was the FATHER who provided it, and their ancestors still died. But if they eat of the Bread of Life (Jesus, Himself), they will never die. They (and we) just don’t get it. The bread made by human hands is not what keeps us “alive”. It is the love of God that gives us eternal life!
This is probably the most important message of the Holy Spirit, who guides the Church in Her teachings. The reason I say this is that we have been in John Chapter 6 for the last 3 weeks and we will still be in John 6 for 2 more weeks. Is there any other single chapter of the Bible that the Church devotes five weeks to teaching? Think about it. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.