In today’s first
reading we come upon the prophet Elijah, fleeing in the desert from the
terrible Queen Jezebel[1].
He was out of food and water. More than
that, he just didn’t have the fortitude to continue to do God’s work. He laid down under that broom tree, and he
said to God, “Look, I just can’t do this anymore. I’m no better than anyone who
has come before me. I just can’t continue
your mission to Israel.” And he fell asleep, hoping to die. But the angel of
the Lord woke Elijah and gave him food and water. Elijah fell asleep again, and
again the angel of the Lord woke Elijah and told him to eat and drink. And, the
reading concludes with the nourishment the Lord provided, he walked forty days
and forty night to the mountain of God Horeb[2].
Like Elijah in
the desert, there are times that all of us feel so spiritually drained that we
wonder whether or not we have the strength to complete the particular mission
the Lord has for us. There is a mountain we have to journey to, a mountain we have
to climb. The mountain is God’s unique plan for each of us. There is a mystery
in that although the plan is unique, it encompasses a position in life that we
share with many people. For example,
many people are called to be parents, but each person is called to be a parent
in a unique way.
The same came be
said for all vocations in life. The plan is a mountain. The journey is our lives. It takes a tremendous amount of strength and
determination to be a good husband or good wife, a good parent and even a good
child, a good priest, or a good Teen. It
takes a great effort to be a true follower of Christ. It takes a tremendous determination to allow
God’s plan for us to take place. It is
much easier to just give up.
We have a gift
far greater than Elijah received. It is
not an angel of the Lord that is telling us to take and eat. It is Jesus Christ who gives us the
nourishment we need to complete the work with which we have been entrusted. And
we are not given just a hearth cake and water; we are given the very Body and
Blood of the Lord to help us complete the journey of the Lord. We all, myself
included, need to remind ourselves of the tremendous gifts we have received
from God so we are able to serve Him. We have received the gift of Jesus
Christ, the eternal Word become one of us. It is difficult for us to comprehend
the depth of this gift. Like the people
in the Gospel, we often treat the Lord as a great man, but nothing more than a
man. Perhaps, we have overemphasized the humanity of the Lord to such a point that
we overlook His divinity. Jesus is God,
one with the Father and the Spirit at the creation of the universe. The whole Gospel of John was written to
combat the denial of the divinity of Christ.
Our belief in
the presence of the Lord in the Eucharist begins with our recognition of his
divinity. If He were not God, He could not transform bread and wine into His
body and blood.
As we come to a
greater awareness that the communion we receive is the Body of Christ, we
realize that this divine nourishment is far more than a meal of fellowship. This
is the food that provides the spiritual strength for us to make it through the
week.
God does not demand
the impossible from us. He does not give us more than we can handle. He gives
us all that we need to complete the journey of our lives to His Mountain. The
mountain is the goal of our lives. The
mountain is the reason why He created each of us. We have to believe in Him. We have to trust
in Him. With the food that He gives us,
His very body and blood, we can complete the journey: we can be good Christians
and for some of us good priests and religious. With the nourishment He gives
us, the Eucharist, we can live well and die well •
[1] Jezebel had
sworn to kill Elijah in retaliation for Elijah’s killing the false prophets of
Baal on Mt. Carmel. Elijah fled to the desert. He would try to cross it. He knew that the soldiers wouldn’t think he
would go there. No one could survive
crossing the desert. That’s where we find Elijah in that first reading. Elijah
had had enough.
[2] 19th Sunday of
Ordinary Time (B), August 9, 2015. Readings: 1 Kings 19:4-8; Responsorial Psalm
34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9;Ephesians 4:30-5:2; John 6:41-51.
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