19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
Do you hold bitterness or anger in your heart? How about fury, shouting, reviling, and malice? The Holy Spirit grieves when we hold such things in our heart (19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B).
We need these things removed from our hearts to make room for kindness, compassion, and forgiveness.
We need to ask God to cleanse our hearts of the bad so that we can embrace the good.
We need to take refuge in the Lord so that we may “taste and see the goodness of the Lord.” We need strength from on high.
Elijah needed the same. He had gone “a day’s journey into the desert” when “he prayed for death.”
Why did he pray for death? Why did he flee into the desert? He, through the power of God, had defeated the 450 false prophets of the false god Baal. One might think he would be on a high note. What happened?
Right after the false prophets were defeated, Jezebel sought his death. He went into the desert to escape her. Tired of fleeing, “he prayed for death.”
It was not God’s plan for Elijah to die then. So, God sent an angel to Elijah. He knew Elijah would need strength for what lay ahead of him. God sent the angel with a “hearth cake and a jug of water.”
Elijah was “strengthened by that food” and “he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.”
Our lives are meant to be a journey towards God. We need food to strengthen us. We need earthly food to strengthen our bodies. We need Bread from Heaven to strengthen our souls.
Chapter 6 of the Gospel of John is Jesus’ teaching us about the Eucharist, the true Bread from Heaven.
We know that Jesus is “the bread than came down from heaven” but the people who heard Jesus say this firsthand did not. They struggled to understand. They knew him as “the son of Joseph.” So, how could He say, “I have come down from heaven”?
God had fed his people the Israelites in the desert with the manna. It was food for their bodies. The Bread that Jesus gives is food for our souls. “Whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
When we understand what is, the Body of Christ, that we receive at Communion, we will seek it out not once in a while but every Sunday, (everyday for those who are able).
I cannot explain how the bread and wine are transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Jesus but I have no doubt that it is. As I say the words of consecration I know that God is at work through the Holy Spirit to make the bread food for our souls.
Peace,
Fr. Jeff