Homily For The 19th Sunday In The Ordinary Time of The Year B, August 11, 2024
“In each of our lives, Jesus comes as the Bread of Life to be eaten, to be consumed by us. This is how He loves us. Then Jesus comes into our human life as the Hungry One, the Other, hoping to be fed with the bread of our life, our hearts by loving, and our hands by serving…” –St. Teresa of Calcutta
Sunday Readings
“…whoever eats this Bread will live forever, and the Bread that I will give is My Flesh for the life of the world.”
My Dearest Friends in Christ,
May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. We are gathered again to be taught and fed by God. May the Words we shall hear today satisfy our spiritual hunger through Christ our Lord.
The readings of today, especially the Gospel, are a continuation of last Sunday’s reading on the Bread of Life discourse in John chapter 6. Today Jesus makes it even more clear that He is the Bread of Life. The Bread that comes down from heaven for the life of the world. This Bread is the Body of Christ and whoever eats of it worthily will never die but have life everlasting.
The vacuum in man can only be filled when he earnestly hungers for Jesus, the Bread of life. Jesus is the Bread that is broken to heal the brokenness of a broken world.
Let us begin by asking ourselves, do I have life in Christ or am I simply existing? We eat bread ( food) to sustain our biological life as living beings but our spiritual life as spiritual beings is sustained by the Body of Christ (the Bread of Life). Physical food can nourish but also destroy our biological mechanism or body chemistry when taken in excess. Nowadays the gym business is becoming more lucrative because people have realized the need for exercise to lose weight and keep fit from all they accumulated through eating and drinking. Many are sick because of the food they consume. Medical science keeps alerting us about the dangers of excessive consumption of certain foods and drinks and warns about the consequences of overindulgence in such. People are dying daily partly because of poor eating habits that escalate to the deterioration of their health. Today, amid thousands of delicacies in the restaurants in our country and around us, Jesus offers a different kind of food (the Bread of Life) that provides physical and spiritual nourishment and also everlasting life. People who eat this Bread will not be sickened by it but will have life.
In a country like America where many do not cook, many are willing to pay for food in fast food places but are reluctant to go to church to eat the Bread of Life. We spend time eating out in fast food places but have no time to visit God’s House nor even to accept His very gift of Himself in the Eucharist. Why waste time and money on food that does not last? “Worldly people have no control over food and drinks but spiritually minded people practice moderation and self-control.”
The life that Jesus offers us is His Very Self. To know Him is to have life, to live without Him is to merely exist. We partake in this Divine life through receiving His Body and entering into a deeper communion/relationship with Him. We either live in God or without Him, and we simply exist. Jesus offered Himself that we may have life and have it in full.( cf. Jn 10:10) Are you truly living that life fully or merely existing?
The first reading of today describes the physical and spiritual hunger experienced by the prophet Elijah. The Bread of Life is prefigured in this reading by the miraculous food with which the angel nourished the Prophet Elijah in the desert while he was fleeing from the soldiers of Queen Jezebel. After being nourished Elijah was strengthened for the long journey of forty days to Mount Horeb where God instructed him to continue his prophetic work. Daily we are fed and nourished by this Bread in the Eucharist and by His enduring Words. Jesus satisfies both physical and spiritual hunger. He satisfies our physical hunger because the more we grow in the knowledge of Him and friendship with Him, the less we desire the material things of this life, and the more contented we become. He satisfies us spiritually by offering us eternal life that worldly food or desires cannot offer. Spiritually He transforms our lives, making us living reflections of Himself. As reflections of Christ, we become people filled with His spirit, His compassion, His forgiveness, and His enduring Love.
The second reading presents Christ Jesus, the “Bread of Life,” as a “sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.” Paul reminds the Ephesian Christians and us, that instead of seeking satisfaction in the stale food of anger, slander, bitterness, and malice, we are to nourish one another with the spiritual food of compassion, kindness, and mutual forgiveness. Unless we become what we eat, we are eating in vain. To partake of this heavenly food without proper disposition is also eating to die. (cf. 1Cor. 11:29) “In each of our lives, Jesus comes as the Bread of Life – to be eaten, to be consumed by us. This is how He loves us. Then Jesus comes into our human life as the Hungry One, the Other, hoping to be fed with the bread of our life, our hearts by loving, and our hands by serving…” –St. Teresa of Calcutta
Today’s Gospel describes Jesus’ discourse in the synagogue at Capernaum on His return there after His miraculous feeding of the five thousand. During the discourse, Jesus reveals Himself as the true “Bread of Life that came down from Heaven,” to give life to the world. Jesus proclaims Himself as the new and perfect manna, the Incarnate Son of God literally “..come down from Heaven.” This means that by the Holy Eucharist, Jesus gives us a share of eternal life while we are still on earth. But some of Jesus’ followers turned away when He explained the source of His mysterious power and His Heavenly origin, just as many today receive Him without proper disposition and reverence.
The readings of today offer us another opportunity to reflect on our lives. Earthly food and drink can only nourish your body or cause one to become sick, but the spiritual food that Jesus offers gives us life in this world and eternal life hereafter. The Eucharist is a pledge of the Beatific Vision. We have to choose to live in Him or die without Him.
Let us appreciate God’s Gift of Himself and adore Him in the Eucharist. Let us become another Christ to others, offering them the gift of ourselves in satisfying the hunger for justice, peace, and love in our world. May you remain ever nourished by the Bread of Life. Peace and blessings.
You must strive to multiply bread so that it suffices for the tables of mankind, and not rather favor an artificial control of birth, which would be irrational, in order to diminish the number of guests at the banquet of life.”–Pope Paul VI
I keep you and your family always in my prayers. ©Clem C. Aladi (2024)
