1st Reading: 1 Kgs 19:4-8
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 34:2-9
2nd Reading: Eph 4:30-5:2
Gospel: Jn 6:41-51
I have been given a few opportunities to travel abroad. I have been to Germany, Guatemala, England, and Italy. Each of these trips had some association to religion behind them. I went to Germany for World Youth Day, Guatemala was to learn Spanish to better serve our Hispanic Catholics, England and Italy were grouped together for a trip I took while I was still in the seminary. Each of these trips have helped me to see the vastness that is found inside of our faith. No matter what country that one belongs to we are able to join together and become the One Body of Christ. From the multitude of these people who call themselves Catholic we can find many fears and struggles that they bring to the Church to unite to the Lord. Out of good faith these people come to the Mass to receive nourishment within their lives that can strengthen their faith and set them out into the world to give service to the Holy Gospel.
The prophet Elijah had been through a lot. He had successfully fought against a false god known as Baal, but still had to worry about the wife of King Ahab. It was the desire of Jezebel that Elijah would be put to death over his transgressions against this false god. Our first reading from the First Book of Kings picks up here. When we join Elijah we find him distraught over the fact that his life is on the line, he has a huge journey ahead, and it feels as if he had been forgotten about and thus has nowhere to turn. In Elijah's own alienation he was unable to realize his true connection to God the Father. Despite all of his suffering God was present and was willing to give assistance if Elijah was open to receiving it. In this passage of scripture we see that God continually came to bring nourishment into his life. This nourishment was given so that Elijah could be strengthened by God and thus be prepared to enter into the mountain of Horeb through his forty day journey.
There are times in all of our lives when we feel a lot like Elijah did in our first reading. We all go through stages in our life when we feel as if we have been left alone and thus forgotten. We all go through days when we glance at the limitless path that lies ahead and cannot fathom the possibility of continuing to move forward. Despite our needs, whatever they may be, we must remember that God is present within our lives. It might feel as if we have been abandoned by God, but the reality is that He is present behind everything that is going on inside of our lives. God is present within all of our moments of loneliness and desires for us to allow Him to enter into our lives. The Sacraments of the Church are all ways that God makes this desire manifest inside of our lives. God especially desires to enter into our lives through the nourishment that is given through the Blessed Sacrament. Christ present in His Body and Blood is the spiritual food that we need to assist us on our journey of faith.
As we journey into this third week out of five spending time with the sixth chapter of Saint John's Gospel we continue to hear about Christ being the Bread of Life. Our Gospel picks up with Jewish leaders questioning Christ about who He is. They are bringing claims before Him because their hearts were unable to fathom the importance of coming to understand that Christ was the Bread of Life. No matter what was said concerning Christ He continued to persist that He is the Bread of Life that has come down to us from Heaven. Despite their claims He continued to give nourishment to all people, so that they could be strengthened in following after Him. Through the Blessed Sacrament we are continually being strengthened by God for the spiritual journeys that we have all been called to undertake. We come to this Mass in order to be spiritually fed, so that we can have the strength to depart from this Church and to enter into the world bringing Christ to all corners of its corners.
The Mass is the place that we are invited to come to receive not bread and wine, but the Body and Blood of Christ. After being nourished through this great Sacrament we are told: "Go forth the Mass is ended." This command that we are given does not mean that we can finally turn Church off and enter back into the world as if nothing has happened. At the Mass we have come to be nourished by the Gospel and by the Holy Eucharist. These elements that we have received into our lives must now be taken out into the world following this command. This command should propel us into the world to become evangelists to all people whom we encounter. As evangelists sent forth from this Mass we bring Christ into the lives of each person that we meet. Saying "Thanks be to God" in response to this command is dedicating ourselves to go out and live our journey of faith as an extension not of own authority, but that of Christ who has sent us forth from this Church.
Through this interaction that is offered to us with the divine we are being given all that we could ever desire. In each of our feelings of being left alone Christ is continually coming to bring nourishment into our lives. The more that we open ourselves up to conform our will with this great gift the more our actions will imitate that of Christ. The more that this takes place within our hearts and souls the better we will be able to journey into the world as representatives of Christ's Holy Gospel. As entering into the world as these representatives we are taking the command made at the closing of the Mass to heart as we depart from this place. We have all been invited to taste and see the goodness of the Lord through Christ present in His Body and Blood. Through this life giving gift we will be given the strength to extol the name of the Lord to all the corners of the world as we allow Him to deliver us from all of our fears. May we continue to trust in the Blessed Sacrament that gives strength to our souls.
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