Homily: 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 11, 2024
My dear brothers and sisters, in the gospel reading of today, we continue to see John chapter six that has as its central theme the bread of life; the Holy Eucharist. As we mentioned last Sunday, the Holy Mother the Church dedicates up to five Sundays in this Ordinary time for us to read and reflect on this John chapter 6 because of the centrality of the Holy Eucharist in our Christian life. We are called to love the Holy Eucharist and appreciate this Blessed Sacrament. We are invited to receive Jesus in the Eucharist and receive Him well. We are always encouraged to come nearer and adore Christ who is ever present in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist in our different Churches with His arms of invitation perennially extended.
The first reading of today taken from the 1st book of Kings in the Old Testament is placed side by side with the gospel reading from John chapter 6 in the New Testament to give us a little illustration of the power of the Holy Eucharist. We are conversant with the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal in the 1st Book of Kings. Is a long story anyway but the summary of it is that during the time of the prophet Elijah was when the wicked King Ahab and his wicked wife queen Jezebel caused Israel to forsake the living God. They worshipped the pagan god Baal and Asherah and they made many Israelites partakers in this idolatry. Prophet Elijah fought tooth and nail to denounce these pagan practices, but it was not easy for him. The fight culminated in the contest to know who the living God is who would answer with fire. God answered with fire and devoured the sacrifice of Elijah, but the prophets of Baal prayed all day to no avail. The end point was the destruction of four hundred prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel. It was after this incident at Mount Carmel that wicked queen Jezebel swore to destroy Elijah too within the next twenty-four hours.
When such an ungovernable, conscienceless iron lady threatens your life, it would be foolishness to waste a second. So, Elijah ran for his dear life. Elijah was in deep spiritual, physical and mental torture. Jezebel was after his life, Israel had forsaken the living God, he was the only prophet of the living God left, the journey through the desert entailed much suffering, at a point he prayed God to take His life. It was at this point that God sent His holy angels to take to Elijah the bread of life, the bread from heaven. The angel told Elijah to get up and eat and Elijah got up and ate and with the strength gathered from this bread of life, Elijah was able to run for forty days and forty nights without His strength failing till He reached Horeb; the Mountain of God.
Brothers and sisters, we need to get up and eat the Holy Eucharist so that our spiritual strength will not fail us. It is significant that the angel told Elijah to get up and eat, not to lie down in deep sleep and eat. We need to get up from our laziness, from our lukewarmness, from our faithlessness, from our sins and receive this precious gift that God has given us in the Holy Eucharist. The Responsorial psalm of today tells us; taste and see that the Lord is good. Jesus is indeed good. In the gospel reading, when Jesus taught about His body and blood, some started complaining and murmuring; are we cannibals that eat human flesh and blood? Jesus told them, “do not complain…whoever eats this bread will live forever and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Brothers and sisters, no need engaging in long talks, no need murmuring or complaining. Jesus asks us to do this in memory of Him, let us sincerely do our part in His memory and leave the rest to Him. He can never fail us.
