taken 2005

 

taken 2005

 

taken 2005

 

August 13 2006

1 Kgs 19:4-8 Elijah went a day’s journey into the desert,until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it. He prayed for death saying:“This is enough, O LORD! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree,but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat. Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake and a jug of water. After he ate and drank, he lay down again,but the angel of the LORD came back a second time,touched him, and ordered,“Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!” He got up, ate, and drank;then strengthened by that food,he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.

Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9R. (9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;his praise shall be ever in my mouth.Let my soul glory in the LORD;the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Glorify the LORD with me,Let us together extol his name.I sought the LORD, and he answered meAnd delivered me from all my fears.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy.And your faces may not blush with shame.When the afflicted man called out, the LORD heard,And from all his distress he saved him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
The angel of the LORD encampsaround those who fear him and delivers them.Taste and see how good the LORD is;blessed the man who takes refuge in him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Eph 4:30—5:2Brothers and sisters:Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and revilingmust be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate,forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love,as Christ loved us and handed himself over for usas a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.

Jn 6:41-51 The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said,“I am the bread that came down from heaven,”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’?” Jesus answered and said to them,“Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,and I will raise him on the last day. 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. Not that anyone has seen the Fatherexcept the one who is from God;he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you,whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. 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.”

The Gospel message that I hear this morning in the reading is that life in Christ is to eat of the living bread that leads to eternal life. This is a new fulfillment of the history of salvation for those who have covenantal relationships with God. Those who ate manna in the desert were given life saving bread from heaven that sustained them in their journey in the world. Jesus takes this old sign of God's saving love and makes it new by offering himself as the bread that is saving, not just sustaining for the journey in the world but for life eternal.

Those who listen to the God the Father will be drawn to him and receive salvation on the last day. The faith of Christianity is a faith of resurrection. At the center of the Catholic faith, which is the first Christian Church is resurrection and the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Transubstantiation is the calling upon Christ to be present in the Eucharist and occurs in mass services. A part of the mystery and beauty of this is that there is a people, the body of the Church, that shares in this daily around the world united in love and belief with a shared experience of the presence of Christ. It is at the same time a unified event and a personal individual relationship that gives light, strength and life to the faithful. "Bread for the Journey" is a part of the way of the Christian in a renewing, reliving and celebrating Jesus in the present.

I pray this morning for those of the Church who are unable because of sickness or other barriers to receive the Holy Eucharist today that they may feel the peace and loving presence of Jesus.