Sustained by the Eucharist

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

12 August 2018

First reading                                                                    1 Kings 19:4-8
But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.

Second reading                                                     Ephesians 4:32-5:2

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Gospel                                                                     John  6:41-51

Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise them up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.

“I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Reflection By Jessa Janelle Padilla
There are different kinds of test that we go through in our daily life. These tests may regard to school, work, health, relationship, and even faith. How do we prepare ourselves for these tests? What kind of preparation do we do? In school, we study and review our lessons. At work, we do our best to meet the standards, prepare the necessary documents, and comply with existing policies and procedures to pass accreditation tests. About our health, we eat healthy foods and avoid those prohibited foods and drinks to achieve good health test result. On our relationships, we open ourselves to discussion, humble ourselves, there is willingness to listen, and willingness to forgive and to move on to the next chapter with strong and long lasting relationship. And on our faith, we listen to the Word of God, eat the Bread of Life, digest it and live our lives according to Jesus’ teaching.

There might be time that we came to a point where we nearly surrender just like Elijah in our First Reading this Sunday. When he told the Lord that he can no longer continue his journey, an angel touched and ordered him to get up and eat. The angel did it twice until Elijah gained strength to continue his journey. In our journey towards life, sometimes, we also surrender and give up because of the unending hardships, obstacles and problems that we face. But every time we surrender, the Lord sends someone to lift up and enlighten us to continue our journey. And if ever we still feel that we can no longer continue our journey, He never gets tired of sending people to encourage us to keep on moving and fighting. We just need to open our hearts and minds, then listen and be enlightened. Jesus’ light comes in and defeat the darkness. We can continue our journey like how Elijah did.

Also, a peaceful and loving group may experience quarrel and horrible situation. It may be destroyed by misunderstandings and unresolved issues.  On the other hand, a healthy relationship may be broken because of bitterness, fury, anger, shouting and reviling. In the Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, he told us to remove on our lives all bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling along with all malice and be kind to one another, compassionate, and forgiving one another as God have forgiven us in Christ. We need to fight and make a move to fix what has been broken. Let us also be kind, compassionate and forgiving to one another to maintain the healthy, peaceful and loving relationships that we have and cared for.

We all have tendency to have doubt to people and even situations. This is because of the spread of fake news on social media and existence of fake people on our lives. We now think twice, thrice or more and examine the authenticity of the news before we believed. We also put people to test before we can fully trust and be open to them. How come that we became like this? What happened?

In our Gospel today, the Jews doubted that Jesus is the bread that came down from heaven because they all know that He is the son of Joseph. What is the reason for this reaction? It is because of lack of faith? As children God, only our deep faith on Him can make us believe on everything that He will say with no doubts and questions. We can respond immediately with a ‘Yes, You are the Bread of Life’ without thinking twice. We believe and can testify that He is really the Bread of Life. He sustains our needs and makes us full. He never let us down and leave our side.

As followers and believers of Him, He will grant us eternal life upon eating the Bread of Life.

Prayer

Merciful Father, we are so thankful because You gave Your only Son Jesus Christ to us as the Bread of Life. You always touch our lives by sending people to guide and support our journey to become your faithful servant. Feed us Lord with the bread that can satisfy our hunger and remove in our lives all doubts and malice. This we ask in Jesus name, Amen.