Jesus Gives Himself as Food
The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” Jn 6:41-51
19th Ordinary Sunday Cycle B
Jesus promised the Jews that He would give His flesh as food at the Last Supper. But the Jews did not believe Him, murmured against Him and finally abandoned Him. Nevertheless, Jesus continues up to now to fulfill this promise of eternal life to us in the Holy Eucharist.
In the first reading Elijah was being hunted down by the wicked pagan queen Jezebel. By then he was already quite weak both in body as well as in spirit – in truth he wanted to die. Yet Yahweh sent his angel to give him bread and water. Thus his spirit was once more uplifted, and his bodily strength returned – in fact, he was still able to walk for forty days more. Even more than this, is what God does for us in the Holy Eucharist. 1 Kgs 19:4-8.
God gives us fulness of life in the Eucharist.
Yet in the opening of the Olympics the Eucharist was rudely mocked and intentionally ridiculed by woke performers. Those artists at present had done worse than the unbelieving Jews and the heathen Jezebel in the past.
But in all of these St. Paul reminds us Christians “All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.” Eph 4:30—5:2
In brief, we ought to live in love. In the Psalm we responded “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.” What else can we do but do good if in the first place we have been feed with the benevolence of our God.
Truly if we consume the goodness of God, should we not become kind, compassionate, forgiving – after all should we not become what we eat?
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