By FATHER DONALD DILGER
SUNDAY SCRIPTURE
First Reading: 1 Kings 19:4-8; Response: Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 5-7, 8-9; Second Reading: Ephesians 4:30–5:2; Gospel: John 6:41-51
The first reading is part of the Elijah Cycle of stories in 1 and 2 Kings. Approximate dates for the prophetic ministry of Elijah: 869-849 B.C. Background to today’s reading is as follows. Elijah worked among the Israelite tribes in the northern kingdom called Israel. There was a conflict of religions: the worship of the Lord God of Israel (Yahwism) versus the worship of Baal. He was the god of storms, rain, fertility. Elijah, prophet of the Lord God, initiated a major attack on the worship of Baal. At the Lord’s command, he decreed a three-year drought — a direct attack on the god of rain. During the drought, Elijah was fed miraculously by the good graces of a widow whose son he raised back to life. After three years, the Lord commanded Elijah to inform King Ahab that he was about to end the drought by sending rain. Elijah was in trouble with Ahab, especially through Ahab’s heathen wife Jezebel. She promoted the worship of Baal. She wanted to eliminate Yahwism by killing the prophets of the Lord. Now that the drought had ended, Elijah presented Ahab with a plan. All of Israel and the 450 prophets of Baal were to assemble at Mt. Carmel. There they gathered. Elijah reproached them for their dallying in the worship of Baal. No reply.
Next step. Bring two bulls for a sacrifice. The prophets of Baal were to choose one bull, butcher it, and lay the meat on their altar. Elijah was to prepare the other bull for sacrifice on an altar to the Lord. Each of the contestants would call on their respective divinity to send down fire from heaven to consume the sacrificial meat. Whichever divinity would send fire and burn up the meat, that would be either a fake god, or the true God. The prophets of Baal were on first. They pleaded with Baal to send fire from the sky. They danced around his altar for half a day, but there was no answer. Elijah taunted them. Perhaps if they shout louder, or maybe Baal was asleep or just busy. All to no avail. Now it was Elijah’s turn. He placed the sacrificial meat on the Lord’s altar. He saturated with water both meat and altar. The trench around the altar, a means of catching the blood of the sacrifice, was filled with water. At Elijah’s request, the Lord sent fire from heaven. It consumed the meat, the wood and the water in the trench. Now the people were convinced that the Lord was the true God. Elijah was seized by a frenzy. With help from his new converts he massacred the 450 prophets of Baal. Queen Jezebel sent a message to Elijah, “You’re dead!” That is why in today’s reading Elijah flees south toward Mt. Sinai. On the way, an angel feeds him with bread from heaven. And that connects us with the Bread of Life Discourse in today’s gospel.
Psalm 34 was selected to respond to the feeding of Elijah with miraculous food, as we see in the people’s response, “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.” The psalm also connects with our gospel, which speaks of the living bread that came down from heaven. Elijah’s dire situation is reflected in these words of the psalm, “When the afflicted man called out, the Lord heard,” and “Blessed the man who takes refuge in him.” The Letter to the Ephesians continues the exhortation to Gentile converts. Because they were sealed with the Holy Spirit they must give up bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, cursing, malice. They must have compassion toward one another and forgive one another. The reason for forgiveness, “because God has forgiven you.” Forgiving makes them imitators of God. They must love one another because Christ loved them. This he proved by offering himself as a sacrifice. A question is implied. “If Christ did this for you, can you make the smaller sacrifice of loving one another?”
Last week’s gospel ended with Jesus proclaiming, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger. Whoever believes in me will never thirst.” Earlier in last week’s gospel John gave us the first definition of the term “bread from heaven.” It is the teaching that Jesus brings from the Father which gives life to the world. In the closing, statement John gave us a second definition, that Jesus himself is the bread that came down from heaven. This is not yet a reference to consuming Jesus in the Eucharist. That will be the third definition. The first two ways for us to connect with the bread from heaven is by acceptance in faith of the revelation that Jesus brings and the revelation that Jesus is. That Jesus proclaims himself as God’s revelation finds objection. There was murmuring, a word recalling the murmuring of the Israelites against Moses. Jesus’ critics state what to them was obvious, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? So how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven?’” Jesus responds by quoting Isaiah 54:13, “They shall all be taught by God.” In other words, no one can accept this teaching except as a gift from the Father, the gift of faith. Jesus proclaimed this earlier, “No one can come to me unless the Father draws him to me.”
Again Jesus insists on faith in what was just revealed as meaning of the term “bread from heaven.” It is the revelation that Jesus brings from the Father and the revelation that Jesus is. Only those who accept this have eternal life, “Whoever believes has eternal life.” Earlier the crowd noted that Moses gave them bread from heaven when he arranged with the Lord to feed them with the manna. There is a difference between that bread from heaven and this bread from heaven which is the center of catechesis in this discourse. That bread only sustained temporarily the life of the body. This bread from heaven gives eternal life, “so that one may eat it and not die.” Jesus repeats his claim that he, as the Father’s revelation, is the bread from heaven. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread (through faith) will live forever.” This statement serves as introduction to the third definition of bread from heaven, as Jesus says, “and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world,” the Eucharist.
At the end of last Sunday’s gospel, Jesus proclaimed, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger. Whoever believes in me will never thirst.” Earlier in the same gospel reading John gave us the first definition of “the bread from heaven.” It is the teaching that Jesus brings from the Father which gives life to the world. In the closing statement of that gospel John gave a second definition, that Jesus himself is the bread that came down from heaven. This is not a reference to consuming Jesus in the Eucharist. That will be the third definition. The first two ways to connect with the bread from heaven is by acceptance in faith of the revelation that Jesus brings from the Father and the revelation that Jesus is from the Father. That Jesus proclaims himself as the bread from heaven finds objection. There was a murmuring, a word meant to recall the murmuring of the Israelites against Moses. The murmurers state what was obvious to them, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? So how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven?’” Jesus quotes Isaiah 54:13, “They shall all be taught by God.” Meaning: no one can accept this teaching except as a gift from God, the gift of faith. Jesus proclaimed the same earlier, “No one can come to me unless the Father draws him to me.”
Jesus insists on faith in what he had just revealed — the two meanings of the term “bread from heaven.” Those two meanings bear repeating: the revelation that Jesus brings from the Father; the revelation that Jesus is from the Father. Those who believe this have eternal life. The crowd noted earlier that Moses gave them bread from heaven when he arranged with the Lord to feed them with manna. There is a difference between that bread from heaven and this bread from heaven. That bread only sustained temporarily the physical life of the body. This bread from heaven gives eternal life, “so that one may eat it and not die.” Jesus repeats his claim that he, as the Father’s revelation, is the bread from heaven. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread (through faith) will live forever.” This statement introduces the third definition of bread from heaven, as Jesus says, “. . . . and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” The Eucharist!