Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Title

Bread from Heaven

Outline

I like bread, especially fresh-baked bread

I have baked bread myself - always whole grain, full of flavor

I prefer such bread to many other foods, including meat

One thing I enjoy about Byzantine Divine Liturgy is that the server often brings a freshly baked prosphora, still warm from the over, ready for me to prepare for the liturgy

But what strange passages about bread we have today

Our first reading has Elijah essentially making a suicide attempt

He is depressed because Jezebel is trying to kill him

So he walks to the other end of Palestine, leaves his attendant in a town, and walks out into the wilderness all day without food or water, then lays down and commends his soul to God

Instead, God sends him bread, hearty bread, not once, but twice, for God is calling him to a meeting that will recommission him for a final set of missions

In our Gospels Jesus has just said, “I [unlike the manna] am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.”

Now bread may seem to live with yeast, but it does not make us live forever.

Are you surprised that the Jews said, “Hey, we know this man and his family. What does he mean by, “came down from heaven?”

Jesus does not answer their question, but simply says, “You are just showing that the Father did not draw you; you need to be taught by God to get this saying.” There are questions about God that only a divine answer will solve; they are transrational, not simply rational. We have spend time in contemplation listening to God. The silence times in the mass, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, or quiet meditation in our favorite prayer place.

Then he asserts: “You may hear God, but I have seen God and have come from God, so this teaching comes from beyond the space-time universe.”

Then he repeats, “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life.” This is not living on and on, but the life of the ages, life on a higher plane, the life Elijah would get when he rides a divine chariot into the divine whirlwind.

Then comes the final conclusion: “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.” Jesus puts together what he has said and adds: “the bread . . . is my flesh for the life of the world.” We receive life through his flesh, through eating him.

But while every mass presents his flesh to eat, it is only those who consume him with trust and love who get beyond this tiny universe and consume Jesus at the level of a deeper reality - really physical but really beyond the physical.

In other words, we consume him, but in another sense we are drawn into him, we are brought into a love union with him. It is his life in us.

Now the Jews did not get it, as the passage goes on to show, and we perhaps only get it partially - we are so bound to this space-time universe.

If we want to get it, we need to be taught by God: “I believe, help me unbelief.” Or “I commit to the words, but I do not fully understand. Bring me to the level of deeper truth, deeper reality - to your level.

And then, perhaps not in church but when walking down the street or during some job, we get it - God has spoken to our heart. We know what it is to consume Jesus not just consume the host; we know it not in our minds with good theological words, but in our deepest soul. We know the life of the ages is already in us. And our response is not just, “Oh, I get it,” but “Jesus, I love you; I want only you; I want only to be one heart and soul and will with you.”

Readings

Catholic Daily Readings 8-8-2021: Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

FIRST READING

1 Kings 19:4–8

4 and went a day’s journey into the wilderness, until he came to a solitary broom tree and sat beneath it. He prayed for death: “Enough, LORD! Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 He lay down and fell asleep under the solitary broom tree, but suddenly a messenger touched him and said, “Get up and eat!” 6 He looked and there at his head was a hearth cake and a jug of water. After he ate and drank, he lay down again, 7 but the angel of the LORD came back a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat or the journey will be too much for you!” 8 He got up, ate, and drank; then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.

Catholic Daily Readings 8-8-2021: Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

SECOND READING

Ephesians 4:30–5:2

30 And do not grieve the holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. 32 [And] be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.

CHAPTER 5

1 So be imitators of God, as beloved children, 2 and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.

Catholic Daily Readings 8-8-2021: Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

John 6:51

51 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.”

GOSPEL

John 6:41–51

41 The Jews murmured about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” 42 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’?” 43 Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop murmuring among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. 45 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. 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; 50 this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. 51 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.”

Notes

Catholic Daily Readings 8-8-2021: Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

SUNDAY, AUGUST 8, 2021 | ORDINARY TIME

NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

YEAR B | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY

First Reading 1 Kings 19:4–8

Response Psalm 34:9a

Psalm Psalm 34:2–9

Second Reading Ephesians 4:30–5:2

Gospel Acclamation John 6:51

Gospel John 6:41–51

GREEN