Readings: 1 Kgs 19:4-8; Psalm 34:2-3,4-5,6-7,8-9; Eph 4:30-32, 5:1-2; John 6:41-51
THEME: GET UP AND EAT, FOR THE JOURNEY IS TOO MUCH FOR YOU!
a. Is this not Jesus, the Son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?
Dearest in Christ today is our third Sunday of reflecting on the sixth chapter of John’s gospel. Last two Sunday, Jesus performed the miracle of feeding of five thousand (men) as a sign of him as the Bread of life. Last Sunday, he made it clear to those looking for him that although the material bread is necessary, they should strive more for the heavenly food for that lasts in eternity, and he, Jesus, is that heavenly food.
This Sunday, we see the reactions of the Jews to Jesus’ speaking of himself as the Bread of life. Last Sunday, the Jews agreed with Jesus that they needed the Bread of life (cf John 6:34). Knowing the story of God’s feeding of their ancestors in the desert under the leadership of Moses, the people might have expected Jesus to rain down bread from heaven as a re-enactment of desert experience. But Jesus instead said to them “I am the Bread of Life.” This statement left many of them saying “is this not Jesus, the Son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know.” Jesus bases on his heavenly origin, his eternal being with the Father, to speak of himself as the Bread that will give the people the life they yearn for.
But the people reacted basing on the human origin of Jesus: his father and his mother. The problem was not that the people did not want the Bread of Life but that they could not understand how someone they knew very well, knowing how he was born and from where he was born, could be speaking of himself as having divine origin and capacity. In the same way, dear brothers and sisters, we all accept that there is something in us that desires a better life than what we have in this world. There is this longing in our soul that no matter how much we try to occupy it with earthly goods, it keeps on being there.
The Eucharist is given to us as the Body of Jesus, capable of satisfying the longing of our souls. But just like the Jews, we end up doubting: “Is this not normal bread and wine, made from flour and grape?
How can something I know how it is made and from what it is made, and even the person who makes it, turns to be the Body and Blood of Christ? Staying on the level of its botanical components, and not seeing beyond its earthly origin, we fail to see the mystical transformation that makes it heavenly and divine. Just as the Jews fail to understand the power of Jesus to give them divine life because they were seeing the Son of Joseph and Mary so do some of us find it difficult to understand the power of the Eucharist because they see bread and wine.
b. GET UP AND EAT
In the first reading, we are presented with the story of Elijah on his journey to the mountain of God, Mount of Horeb. This was after Elijah’s encounter with the prophets of Baal, the prophets of Jezebel, and knowing that his life was in danger, he decided to run away. Elijah was on his way to meet the Lord, but his human strength was not enough to carry him up to the mountain.
On his way, he became weak and could no longer continue. So, he sat down, and fell asleep. At this point, the angel of the Lord came to him and said, “get up, eat.” Yes, the angel brought food (baked cake) for Elijah, but he (Elijah) must get up, and then eat, for his strength to be revived.
And unless Elijah did rise and eat, he would not be able to continue with his journey because his human strength has been exhausted. In fact, the angel made it clear to him when he came the second time and said to him, “get up and eat otherwise/because the journey will be/is too much for you.” Whether the Hebrew ki (יִּ֛ כ ( is translated as ‘because’ (because the journey is too much for you) or as ‘otherwise’ (otherwise the journey will be too much for you) both shows that Elijah’s eating of the food brought by the angel was necessary less he could not make it to the mountain of the Lord.
As a matter of fact, after Elijah had eaten of the food, the Scripture says that “he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God” (Cf 1 Kgs 19:8). Let us underline here that in the Biblical world, the expression “forty days and forty nights” is marked as duration for a transition and transformation. For instance: the flood would last for forty days and forty nights for the sinful old world to be transformed into a new world (cf Gen 7:4,12; Gen 8:6); the people of Israel moved from ordinary people to a covenant people after Moses spent forty days and forty nights receiving the covenantal conditions from God (cf Ex 24:18; 34:28).
The Jews were to move for forty days and forty nights for them to enter into their free land. ETC. For forty days and forty nights, Elijah went to the mount of God in the strength of the food brought by the angel. That means, the food which Elijah ate sustained him from his journey from the land of threat to his life (cf 1 Kgs 19:2) to the comforting abode of God, the mount of calmness and peace (cf 1 Kgs 19:12).
Dear brothers and sisters, we are on our way to meet the Lord on his mountain. In this our journey, our human strength fails us, and we get weak, beaten down, frustrated and tired. God knows that the journey will not be easy. Jesus knows that we need an enduring food for us not to die off on our journey to meet God. Hence, he provides food for us…his Body. Jesus provides himself to give us the strength we need for this journey. We do not need to go far in order to have access to this food because it has been brought to us, not by an angel as in the case of Elijah, but by Christ himself. However, just like the angel told Elijah, two things are demanded of us: getting up and then eating. We must get up/rise from our unbelief, from our sleeping in sin.
We cannot eat the food unless we get up, but it is possible that we may get up, see the food, and refuse to eat. As St. Paul tells us in the second reading, we must get up from life of bitterness, wrath, anger, , slander, and embrace the life of kindness, tenderhearted, forgiveness (cf Eph 4:31-32).
It is one thing to get up from lives of sins, and another thing to embrace the life in Christ. When we get up from our sinful lives of hatred, slander, sexual immoralities etc,
if we do not eat of the food of love, kindness, forgiveness etc. which Christ offers to us, we will remain where we are, and even in more danger of falling back to sleeping in sin.
Dear brothers and sisters, we must believe that we are on our journey to the mountain of God, the mountain of peace and consolation. And we must understand that our human strength is not capable of taking us to this mountain. But thanks to our God and Father, we have Christ Jesus who is both our food and our strength giver. But we must get up and eat the food (the Eucharist) which has been offered to us as “the food for us, the travelers”.
Rev. Fr. Nnamah Henry C
Catholic Diocese of Aguleri, Nigeria