Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
1 Kings 19:4-8 - Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9 - Ephesians 4:30-5:2 - John 6:41-51
We might think depression has never been so widely spread as it is today, but we might be wrong. In today’s first reading, Elijah goes into the desert wishing for death since he feels no one is listening to him; but he discovers God certainly is! Depressed and worn out, Elijah falls asleep. Awaken by an angel not once but twice, Elijah is provided food for a journey. Nourished by heavenly food for his body: bread and water, and for his spirit: someone heard and cared, Elijah walked forty days and forty nights to Horab, the mountain of God.
In our Responsorial Psalm, we are invited to “taste and see the goodness of the Lord.” We are advised to remove the blinders from our eyes, and before we complain, to look around us to count our blessings instead of presuming God is deaf to our cries for help. If we seek the Lord in good faith, the Lord will respond. Trust God, and we might well be surprised!
Do we realize we were blessed with the Holy Spirit at our Baptism? Often it takes a lifetime to even become aware there is a Third Person in the Trinity! Yet in his letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul advises us “not to grieve the Holy Spirit with whom we have been sealed.” How do we avoid grieving God? It is simple, but certainly not easy! Be kind, compassionate, forgiving, and living in love as Christ loves us. It’s a challenge to practice putting these virtues into our daily lives, but it is worth the effort.
Wouldn’t you love to have been in the crowd that first heard Jesus claim, “I am the bread that came down from Heaven.” Murmurs erupted: “We know who you are, how can you say this?” We know your parents..” and Jesus says, “Stop murmuring..” How difficult for the early hearers to grasp the implication; how difficult for us, centuries later to scratch the surface, yet we believe that Jesus feeds and carries us forward one day at a time! Living in the day, we can be followers of Jesus’ life, death on the cross, and resurrection. So, it is in faith, we trust God’s teaching, and believe that when we receive the body and blood of Jesus, we receive the grace needed to face our daily activities-the easy and the not so easy parts that make up our daily lives.
“Jesus, we trust You to feed us as we need to be fed.”
Sr. Miriam Catherine Nevins, OP
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