19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
The readings for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time demonstrate that God sustains us despite everything that is going on. In the First Reading Elijah, overwhelmed, sought death in the wilderness but was sustained by an angel with food and water, enabling his journey to Horeb the mountain of God. The Second Reading tells us to a avoid behaviour that grieves the Holy Spirit. Instead, we should be kind, compassionate, and forgiving, just as God forgave us. We are called to lead lives of love as we follow Christ’s example. The Gospel reading deals with a doubting audience, and at times we are also members of that doubting audience.
The people who heard Jesus were shocked and critical of his claim to have come down from heaven as the Bread of Life. Despite the miracles they had witnessed, and the words of wisdom they heard preached with such convincing authority, they could not go the extra step to accept his words and deeds. We, on the other hand are able to take that extra step because our Christian faith has come to us from Jesus, passed down through the generations of those who went before us. We know where he came from, we know where we are going and we know how to reach that destination our heavenly homeland. The personal faith that we have means that “God out of the abundance of his love, speaks to us as a friend and lives among us as the living bread which came down from heaven. All of us have doubts when it comes to our faith and we search for answers to our questions. When we search we find Jesus who is the answer to our doubts.
Through the teachings of the church and through our communion with him through the eucharist we understand who Jesus is and we also understand his message. When we gather at the Eucharist we bring ourselves and our needs in prayer to God. We bring ourselves to God because God is with us and continues to be with us in good and bad times through the sacramental life of the Church. When we see the Eucharistic Bread, we believe that it is Jesus who is there before us: such is the faith we have in the Eucharist. So today we give thanks for all our blessings, families, friends and all that we have and hold dear. We also give thanks to God for the presence of Jesus in our lives as we remember that Jesus is the bread of life. The food for our journey that comes from the God who sustains us and loves us and is there for us as a friend, a helper and a guide.
We pray for peace as there are many communities and countries at war with one another. From Ukraine to the Holy Land and even on our local streets where racism has reared its ugly head. And so we pray: God of peace, you are peace itself; a divided heart cannot find you, a violent mind cannot welcome you. Grant that we who are one in heart may hold fast to the gift of peace and that those who are divided may forget their strife and come to know your gift of peace. Through Christ our Lord
Fullerton T 