August 08, 2021
19th Sunday Ordinary B
Elijah is escaping the wrath of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. He flees into the desert. Exhausted and depressed he cries out: “This is enough, O Lord!†He falls asleep. An angel of God touches him and orders him to drink from a jug of water and eat a hearth cake. Again, it happens a second time. The bread and water will sustain Elijah for forty days and nights as he journeys to the mountain of God. We find common cause with Elijah as we cry out to God: “This is enough.†Just as we begin to feel safe to renew our daily routines, there is heightened concern with the rapid spread of the Delta strain of Covid-19. Will the increase in cases prompt any limitations or restrictions on attending Mass? Over these past 18 months we have come to appreciate our being together in person or live streaming the Eucharist. During this period of deprivation, we have been nourished with the Bread of Life.
In the Gospel according to St. John, Jesus tells the crowd: “I am the bread of life that came down from heaven.†Jesus offers us the Bread of Life during the Liturgy of the Word and at Holy Communion. “Bread of Life†refers to the living Word of God and to the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. Through the Liturgy of the Word, Jesus speaks to us as a Church, as a parish and as individuals. Jesus quotes Sacred Scripture: “They shall all be taught by God.†When we break open the Bread of the Word our souls are spiritually nourished. Recalling St. Paul to the Ephesians, we “learn Christ.†We are renewed with a “fresh spiritual way of thinking†that integrates everything around us with our faith in Christ. We are called to put away the old self of our former way of life, to remove “all bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling…and to 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...â€
In the last verse of our Gospel (Jn 6:51) Jesus speaks of giving us his very self. “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.†It is intentional. John, the evangelist, is shifting our focus from Jesus as the Bread of Life, the revelation of God, Table of the Word, to Jesus giving himself to us in the consecrated bread and wine, the Sacrament of his Body and Blood in Holy Communion. “Here we are fed with the very body and blood of Jesus Christ. Here is where we make contact with the Jesus of the Gospels, the Jesus of History, the Jesus Who is the center of our Church. Here He comes to us personally with all his graces and strengths we need, in our own personal way, for our individual journey of life.†(Fr. Joseph S. Krempa, Captured Fire, Cycle B, p.125)
Jesus makes it personal. “I am!†He is using the sacred name of God in reference to himself. “I am the Bread of Life†reveals his identity and oneness with God, the Father, and his relationship with us. There is an African word “ubuntu†that means “I am because we are.†Jesus takes our shared humanity and raises it up on the cross. We receive Holy Communion, the Body of Christ, and we are Holy Communion, the Body of Christ.
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18th Sunday Ordinary B
