Homily, August 11, 2024
From The Pastor
It is hard to seek the way of holiness, to follow the Lord through thick and thin, even if you are the Savior. This is not something new. Even in the beauty, dignity, and goodness of the human person, it is difficult to persist in seeking the Divine way. Jesus himself, as the Divine Son, was challenged to persist through the most ardent resistance and persecution.
Hungry souls who perceive and accept the presence of God in their life with the desire to do God’s will need to be fed. It is a long journey, beginning to end, and those who seek this path must be nourished along the way.
Elijah was a powerful Prophet and agent of God in the Old Testament. His name and image grew even larger than the powerful works he performed through the action of God. Even in his zeal for the Lord and the works God accomplished through him, Elijah had times of discouragement, fear, and exhaustion that led him to want to die. This is the setting of the first reading.
Standing alone against the false gods of his day, Elijah was steadfast in his faith of the living God of Israel, Yahweh, God of all that is. Elijah has just defeated the false prophets of Baal through his sacrifice offered to God as proof that God alone is Lord. His sacrifice, soaked in gallons of water is consumed in the fire of God. All the people acclaim God as the Lord, whereby all the prophets of Baal are slain.
Elijah flees for his life as Jezebel, a believer in Baal, seeks to kill him. He hides in the wilderness feeling defeated and exhausted. He wishes for death. All power and zeal appear lost. Yet, notice the fidelity of God to his faithful servant. As a man, a person in grave distress, God comforts Elijah with consolation and encouragement, as well as real food and drink for his body. God understands weakness and discouragement even in the strongest ones among us. Twice, Elijah is told to eat and drink lest the journey ahead be too much for him. Elijah is restored by the comfort and action of God that revived his spirit and strengthened his body. Nourished in soul and body, Elijah travels for forty days to Mt. Horeb to meet the Lord.
Similarly, St. Paul had his share of pain and persecution in his service to the Lord. Persisting against every kind of resistance to the faith he preached against the wayward behavior of his listeners. Paul is steadfast in his instruction to reveal the truth of Christ. Paul challenges the incongruence of his listeners who accept the faith as they persist in old habits of hate, pride, anger, and malice toward one another. The instruction, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit…” The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus, and to profess love for Jesus yet show hatred and malice against others grieves the Holy Spirit. Judgement, disdain, even hatred for others defeats the love of Christ we profess to hold within ourselves. Loving your neighbor as you love yourself is the joy of the Holy Spirit. To hate your neighbor with fear, jealousy, and judgement grieves or defeats the love a Christian professes. Rather, Paul directs, ‘Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.’
Even Jesus, God incarnate in human flesh, bears the weight of human judgment, criticism, and disdain. As we continue through the discourse on the Bread of Life, Jesus bears his soul with ardent desire to reveal himself to all who would believe in him. He does not have an easy time of it. Not understanding, those who know Him including his family, gossip in their confusion. How can he say, “I have come down from heaven.”
Jesus tells them to stop murmuring and judging. He wants them to listen and try to understand. The same is true today. To believe in Jesus, we must be drawn by the Father, perceiving an inner knowing that stirs us to believe in the truth of love revealed in the person of Jesus. Faith is a gift. A gift from God available to all. Yet, faith must be realized and accepted. This happens by grace, by listening, and trusting what is heard. This is the work Jesus pursues. He says, “Whoever believes has eternal life.” Faith is critical, an undeniable necessity to come to know and accept Jesus as the Bread of Life.
Following the example of the first reading as God feeds and restores the body and soul of Elijah, now it is Jesus who gives his very self to all who believe in him as the Bread of Life. The life of Jesus is the Bread of love that sustains and nourishes us on the Christian journey. The Body of Jesus is given on the Cross for the redemption of our bodies. The life Blood of Jesus is poured out for us in the redemptive act that restores our union with God.
How is Eucharist the food of Jesus? The Eucharist is Jesus himself who heals, forgives, redeems, and transforms those who accept the love of the Father through the life of the Son. Love heals and gives life; a love that will never grieve the Holy Spirit. See you at the table of the Lord.
Father John Esper
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