19^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

John 6:41-51

We’re all going to die.

That is inevitable.

 

So often we pray for good health – for ourselves or for others – as well we should.  And, although I doubt that anyone who reads this is actually starving, we know that so many around the world really are, and so, we pray that their hunger and thirst will be alleviated so that they will have life.  However, even if our fervent prayers are answered in the way we wish, no one; neither me, nor you, nor anyone can escape our mortality and walk upon this earth forever.

 

Jesus even tells us as much in today’s gospel,  “Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but they died.”   So what are we to do?  Give up hope in the face of the futility of life, like Elijah did in today’s first reading from 1 Kings 19:4-8?   “This is enough,  O Lord!” he exclaimed.  “Take my life…”  Yes, this mortal life often deals us a hand which seems hopeless.  Bad health. The death of those we love.  Starvation.  Poverty.  Persecution.  Indeed, life can become overwhelming, so overwhelming that all we want to do is give up, or, as Elijah did, choose to just lie down and let death come.

 

But Jesus gives us a whole new perspective:  Eternal life.  But wait, we can’t really  “live” forever.  No one ever has.  No one ever will.  But Jesus offers us a new life that can be described in one word:  Hope.  Hope is life nurturing, not life taking.  Ultimately, the real death is the death of the spirit. Despair.  Hopelessness.  Eternal life, however, is hope itself.  Even amidst illness, death, starvation, persecution there is love and kindness and comfort and an inner joy and peace so great that nothing can defeat it.  How do we obtain this type of life?  From the bread of life, Jesus.

 

Just as the angel of God placed a hearth cake and a jug of water at Elijah’s head and ordered him to get up and eat, Jesus offer himself and implores us, “Take, and eat.”

 

Although giving up may seem like a warm and inviting choice when the difficulties of life are too much, to do so is to give up on God.  We cannot be agents of God’s love, peace, joy, mercy and most importantly, hope, if we choose to simply give up.  We turn our backs on God if that is what we choose.  So eating the bread of life is not only a choice of salvation for ourselves  - but for the whole world.  Jesus tells us that in today’s gospel when he says, “… and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

 

So although we know we will not walk this earth forever, we know that the choices we make while we are here will either lead eternal life.to despair or hope.  Not only for us, but for the whole world.  Let us choose hope – the true bread of eternal life.

"Call me Ishmael"

 

“Call me Ishmael”