19th Sunday of the Year - 12 August, 2012

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

A popular stand-up comedian humorously quipped: "I intend to live forever... and so far, so good."
In the classic, best-selling book entitled "On Death and Dying," the author traces five distinct stages persons with terminal disease go through in facing death:

1) A period of denial. Inability to accept the fact of death. A "No, it can't be true" attitude.
2) A period of anger. "Why me?"
3) A period of bargaining. A promise to do something in exchange for an extension of time.
4) A period of depression.
5) A final stage of acceptance and resignation.

Terminal illness, however, is a relative matter, for death is what we are all facing. And the comedian's humorous perspective notwithstanding, of course from the time we leave our mother's womb, we all begin to die.

In today's Gospel, Jesus is taking us beyond those five stages of death into a sixth stage. Already, we know that the fact of death lies before us and that no amount of anger or bargaining -- no fit of depression will alter that fact. But there is no escape from the haunting question of where we're going when death overtakes us. Fortunately, one of the things that happen to us when we hear the Word of God is that we are comforted. "Happy those who mourn, they shall be comforted," Jesus says. In the Book of Acts, Luke says that "The Churches throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria were now left in peace, building themselves up; and walking in the comfort of the Holy Spirit". Unfortunately, through the years, the word "comfort" has lost some of its dignity and meaning.

It is interesting to note the word "comfort" is derived from two old English words. In its original sense, it meant "to strengthen greatly." The second part of the word -- "fort" -- comes from the same root as the word "fortress" and "fortify" -- or the word "forte" used in music to indicate strength. Under the weight of the variety of trials and tribulations that come our way, our spirits sag, and we need the power and the strength to raise them up again. And what could be more comforting, what could be more empowering, what could be more fortifying, than these Words of Jesus in today's Gospel Lesson?: "I tell you most solemnly, everybody who believes has eternal life ... I am the Living Bread which has come down from Heaven. Anyone eats of this Bread, will live for ever"

By our acceptance of Jesus' interpretation of the life/death cycle, our natural attitudes toward death are super-naturalized. Jesus eclipses "The Grim Reaper." Man-conceived images of death are overcome by Divinely revealed life. Man-conceived images of reality are replaced by Divinely revealed truth. Man-conceived images of the road to eternity are bypassed by the Divinely revealed way. The way, the truth, and the life are one in the Person of the Lord Jesus. In the person of Jesus Christ we are reconciled for all eternity.

An elderly pastor stepped off the curb to begin crossing the street. A motorist honked at him and the clergyman leaped in alarm. The frightened pastor's companion tried to ease the tension with a friendly taunt. "Why did you jump like that at a mere auto horn? You are always talking about faith, and the mercy of God, and heaven as your true home." To which the pastor replied with a confident smile, "Yes, that's true. Heaven is my true home. But right now I'm not in the least homesick."


Homesickness is something most of us can identify with. Most of us have experienced the deep longing -- the physical ache -- that comes with homesickness. God's greatest gift to us is the Living Christ. At the heart of our faith is the welcoming of this Living Presence into our very being. Having reminded you of that awesome reality, I ask you to consider what it would be like to invite the Living Christ into your experiences of homesickness. What would it be like to invite the Living Christ into the midst of the ache and the loneliness and the sadness and the depression and the emptiness that you feel -- that we all feel -- at least from time-to-time?

We have been created by a Gracious God with a built-in homesickness. The experience of emptiness is part of what makes us human. It is the sense of incompleteness -- until we find home. It is the sense of powerlessness -- until we find home. It is the sense of hopelessness -- until we find our home in God. The experience of emptiness, while it has to be dealt with for what it is, nevertheless is more than just a passing experience. It is a call to come home -- to God!

Thornton Wilder's play, "Our Town," was extremely popular when first presented years ago and is often performed to this day in regional theatres, colleges and high schools. As the third act begins, there is a moving sequence in which the dead -- some young, some middle-aged, some old -- are seated in chairs in the town cemetery. A narrator tells stories about the dead people sitting in the chairs: when they died; how they died; who they left behind. Then the narrator walks to centre stage and says to the audience: "Now there are some things we all know. We all know that something is eternal. And it isn't earth, and it isn't even the stars. Everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal... there's something way down deep that's eternal about every human being... They're waiting, They're waiting for something they feel is coming'. Something important and great…"

It is Jesus who can fill the emptiness, the longing, the void in our hearts and our lives. That what God fills us with is eternal. Jesus so often refers to eternal life as the primary theme of His teaching. And most of us tend to think of eternal life as "something out there in the future." But that is not what Jesus had in mind, primarily. Eternal life obviously has a future reference. But, throughout the Gospels, eternal life is referred to as a quality of life, not a dimension. Jesus makes this abundantly clear in His great prayer to the Father at the Last Supper: "Eternal life is this: to know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent"

Thanks to faith we ourselves believe in the divine presence and in his providential care. But true faith is nothing without love. Faith and love do good work: together, they lead man towards God, towards that food which is the Word of God. Faith and love are the means which make it possible for man to receive within him the life which belongs to the Word of Life, the very Life of God: "He who believes has eternal life." However, even if faith makes it possible for love to live eternally, it is only a beginning of eternity which is given to the man who loves God: for faith is a trial which lasts until the end of a man's life on earth, a trial which one must undergo, a trial one must endure to the end, with perseverance. A strong faith supported by the Love of God, gives man the power to not die in eternity, but remain ever united with God. The object of this faith and love is the Eucharist, the bread of eternal life which Jesus gives us for our nourishment. In today’s Gospel Jesus gives us this comfort by telling us that he is the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.

In the first reading Prophet Elijah feels that he has come to the end of his mission while God has special plans for him. He had gone a day’s journey into the wilderness and he was tired. Symbolically, his journey into the wilderness can be perceived as someone who is aimlessly wondering on earth. He does not know why he is living, a life without hope and destiny. In the midst of opposition it seemed as if all was lost for him. In desperation and exhaustion he prayed to God that he may die. At that moment an angel touched Elijah and told him to eat the cake baked on hot stones and to drink from the jar of water and Elijah obeyed and he was called upon to walk forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mountain of God. The bread and water was the food he received from the Almighty to direct him to his destiny.

In the second reading we are reminded that the Holy Spirit has entered our lives through Baptism. With the Spirit’s help we can even imitate God and live a life of love. Only when a Christian lived a life of love, of forgiveness, of reconciliation, totally free of violence and full of caring, they would be able to say that as a community they have truly eaten of the Bread of Life.

The Gospel indeed gives us the precious message that Jesus is the bread of life. We heard the prophetic words of Jesus when he told them that he is the Living Bread that came down from Heaven. Through these words, Jesus was preparing the believers for the institution of the Eucharist which is his special gift to the Church. This living bread will sustain us and nourish us with its strength on our life’s journey. The crowd, not long before was so eager to eat the bread in the wilderness, now started grumbling and refusing to accept his teachings. Once again John brings here his method of misunderstanding and later correcting the mystery. They were hearing only his literal words and could not understand what they really meant. It requires faith go beyond the surface level and grasp what Jesus is saying at a deeper level. In fact Jesus was telling them that he was the bread of kindness, of tenderness, of forgiveness. He was and will continue to be the bread of love, of loving, and of being loved, the bread of self-sacrifice and self-giving. They only have to eat of this bread and they will find the strength to live, courage to continue, and the will to be like him, to be one with him. He is the one who chooses to live with his people and become the daily bread of life. Jesus wanted to give them the type of bread that has come down from God. When a person eats this Bread he will not die but will live forever. That is the new life which Jesus gives us.

The Jews in fact clearly understood the meaning of this bread. When bread was offered in the temples to the deity, it was understood that it became part of the divinity. This bread was then given back to the people to share and eat as their nourishment and the people believed that they took part in the very divine person and it became their food. When Jesus said I am the bread of life and called them to eat him, it was a direct invitation from him to believe in his divinity. In our Christian context it is an anticipation of the words of Jesus at the Last Supper when he said over the bread, “This is my Body which will be delivered over, handed over for you.” it is a call to participate in his divinity. This Bread of Life that Jesus gives from his Father can be summed up in one word: Love. Therefore Jesus solemnly declares that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. Believers will now be able to live in the unending presence of God. Jesus connects the manna of the desert with his own feeding of the five thousand in the desert. The manna was able to satisfy their human hunger but would not give them the eternal life. But the bread of life Jesus offers surpasses the manna because it can provide eternal life. The final move was that Jesus boldly proclaims that he is the bread of life and he will give his flesh for the life of the world. He did this on the cross when he offered his own body and blood and his resurrection fulfilled this sign of his giving. That flesh which was offered up in love and died on the cross is the key to life. We eat that bread by absorbing into ourselves the spirit, the truth and integrity, the love and compassion, the generosity and peacefulness of Jesus, which is an initiation into that eternal life he promised.

Jesus tells the people that he is the bread of life and is going to be the food of the believers. The first aspect consists in saying that this food is the Body of Christ; the second aspect, that the Body of Jesus is this food. Those who believe in the teachings of Jesus, who persevere in their living faith, and who receive the Church Sacraments, they are on their way to eternal life in the Kingdom of God. Jesus promises that those who believe in him will be fed by the spiritual food which is his own body and blood. Today we ask the grace from Jesus that our Eucharistic celebrations may become truly an experience which helps us to be transformed into a community of love. We need to become a people reaching out in love to all those in need around us. When we are vessels of that Divine eternal life, we become channels of the same life. We ourselves, as living members of the Body of Christ, must ourselves become life-giving Bread for others. Our Eucharist, then, becomes first a celebration of what we are a loving people and secondly become a force in our lives to love even more. Just as prophet Elijah went for 40 days and 40 nights on the strength of the bread God gave him, we too may travel on our life’s journey with the strength of the Eucharist.

(Sources: Sunday Sermons Online & Sunday Reflections)