19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Get up and eat! (1 Kings 19:5)
Elijah was downcast. Queen Jezebel had just ordered his death. Just a few days earlier, Elijah had found himself in a moment of jubilation. He had just “outdueled” four hundred prophets of the false god Baal.
In a matter of days, Elijah went from complete jubilation to complete depression. He went from fearless confidence in God to fearing for his life. He went from feeling like a special messenger of God to feeling like a fruitless and worthless vine. It was so bad that Elijah even asked God to take his life.
In this dire moment, God sent some food and an angel to help Elijah. The angel told him, “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you” (1 Kings 19:7).
Like Elijah, we all have moments of jubilation and moments of discouragement. We may be in prison, we may be dealing with difficulties at work or at home, we may have lost our confidence and feel like a failure. These moments of hardship can sap the life right out of us.
In today’s Gospel, we see Jesus telling people that he is the Bread of Life “that came down from heaven” (John 6:51). Even greater than the food that God provided for Elijah, Jesus offers us living bread, his own flesh. He offers us his own life in the Eucharist so that we don’t ever have to lose hope. As we take and eat, Jesus can minister to our fearful and broken hearts. Even the simple act of eating this Bread can help us feel better.
The Eucharist inspires us to hold on to our faith, even when we are downcast. It reminds us that Jesus was completely human, like us in every way except sin. He was tempted just like us. He suffered like us. So he knows firsthand what it’s like to be troubled.
So take and eat today, knowing that Jesus is with you through even your most troubling times. He will give you his energy for the long haul.
“Lord, you are the Bread of Life.”
Psalm 34:2-9
Ephesians 4:30–5:2
John 6:41-51
Saint Cyril of Alexandria (380-444)
Bishop, Doctor of the Church
Commentary on St. Luke's Gospel, 22
"The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world"
How could humankind, which remained riveted to the earth and subject to death, gain entry to immortality once more? Its flesh had to become assimilated to the life-giving force in God. Now, God the Father's life-giving force is his Word, his only Son, and so it was he whom God sent as Savior and Redeemer...
If you put a breadcrumb into oil, water or wine, it at once soaks up their properties. If you place iron into contact with fire it will shortly become full of the fire's energy and, even though by nature it is only iron, will take on the appearance of fire. In the same way, then, God's life-giving Word, by uniting himself to the flesh he assumed, caused it to become life giving.
Did he not say: “Whoever believes in me has eternal life. I am the bread of life.” And again: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh... Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” So then, by eating the flesh of Christ, the Savior of us all, and drinking his blood we have life in ourselves, we become one with him, we remain in him and he in us.
Therefore it is for him to enter within us through the Holy Spirit in a way fitting to God and to mingle with our body, after a fashion, through the holy flesh and precious blood we receive under the forms of bread and wine as our life-giving blessing. Indeed..., God has exercised his condescension towards our weakness and placed all his life-force into the elements of bread and wine, which are thus endowed with the spirit of his own life. So believe in it without hesitation for our Lord himself has clearly said: “This is my body” and “This is my blood”.