19th Sunday of Year B: 2018

By partaking of his word and Eucharist, may the Lord bless you with heavenly graces especially that you may respond positively to his love  and be ready to help others. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(1Kings 19,4-8; Ephesians 4,30-5:2; John 6,41-51: 19th Sunday of Year B: 2018)

The three readings of today seem to be logically connected. The first reading taken from the book of Kings presents prophet Elijah who is forced to run away from his homeland to escape the persecution of queen Jezebel. After a day’s journey in the desert, tired, desolate and resting under a furze bush, he desired death when he said: Lord, I have had enough. Take my life…But according to the plan of God he has not finished his difficult mission. Then came a mysterious messenger, an angel, sent by God who brought him food and drink two times. With the strength he gathered from the food and drink he was able to walk for forty days and forty nights until he reached Mount Horeb. Certainly, we also in the course of our lives, encounter difficult situations and sometimes are even tempted to say:  O God, I cannot go on again, I cannot make it, …it is better that I die than to continue living this way. Even if we do not arrive to this point, there is no doubt that life can be rough on us, and beset with pitfalls, problems and difficulties. In such situations it is easy to be bewildered, loo777se sense of direction and feel incapacitated to continue the journey of life. 

But Jesus comes to meet us in such difficult moments and situations as he says to us in the Gospel of today:  I am the bread that came down from heaven; I am the bread of life; I am the living bread and adds, If anyone eats of this breed he will live forever; For the bread which I will give you is my flesh for the life of the world. He who believes has eternal life. Jesus Christ offers himself to us as food: living bread, bread of life, bread that descended from heaven. The food and nourishment that he offers are not for our physical and natural body but for our spiritual, supernatural/divine life, not for our earthly life but for our celestial life in eternity. Jesus offers himself as food  and nourishment for our existence in two ways: through his Word and through the Mystery of the Eucharist.

The above affirmations of Jesus are incredible/stunning, perturbing and beyond human understanding. Yet, what is expected of us is to give assent of faith to them, to accept Christ in his human and divine realties and in his capacity to give eternal life. It all means to believe in him, trust him with great humility and simplicity of heart, not to prevaricate or engage in discussions as did the Jews who were murmuring saying how can he say…“I am the bread that came down from heaven”. It is all about believing in one important issue: that Jesus Christ is the one who came from God and has seen the Father and it is the Father who sent him. Certainly, faith is a gift; it is a grace and John the Evangelist is aware of this when he writes that Jesus says in today’s gospel: No one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me. God gives the grace but it behoves us Christians to allow ourselves to be drawn by the Father, to listen to his voice, allow ourselves be taught by Him and welcome his light and open ourselves to it. It is expected from us not to close in unto ourselves, in our very limited vision basking in our security and presumed auto sufficiency. To have a deep relationship with Christ it is necessary to be docile to God the Father. Here what is meant is  not superficial comportment but a profound docility. It is only if in our lives we are docile to the Father and listen to his voice  that invites us to reject evil and do good that we are drawn by him and we enter into an authentic rapport with Jesus. 

The Evangelist John attests that he who believes in Jesus Christ as the one sent by the Father, descended from heaven, came from God, that is to say, he who believes in the divinity of Christ and nourishes himself of Christ (the living bread) through his Word and the Eucharist has eternal life. Note that the grammatical mood of the verb is in the present indicative (has) and this means that such a person already is participating in the divine life in this earthly life. But this is in its initial inchoative manner that will mature into perfection in the next life. To feed on Christ, the living bread and to nourish oneself through his Word and Eucharist means sharing in his very thoughts, sentiments and desires; it means clothing oneself in Jesus as Paul expresses in Romans 13,14 and Galatians 3,27. It means establishing a rapport with Christ. Feeding ourselves on Christ; with his Word and his Eucharist it is very possible that it will also establish new rapport among people, a rapport that is based on love and selflessness or the will to oppress and dominate. Feeding ourselves of Christ will make it possible for us to put into practice Paul’s exhortation to the Ephesians: …follow Christ by loving as he loved you, giving himself up in our place as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye