Sunday Lectionary: Living Bread From Heaven

These notes have been taking up too much of my time again. I’m really going to try and concentrate on keeping them brief…

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: August 12th, 2012

Our Readings this week continue building on the themes of the past few weeks. In our First Reading we hear about how God provided bread and water for Elijah in the desert and in our Gospel Jesus continues with His the “Bread of life Discourse”. In our Second Reading Paul continues His moral exhortation to the Ephesians.

O sacrament of mercy, O sign of unity, O bond of love! Whoso wishes to live, let him draw nigh, believe, be incorporated, that he may be quickened. – St. Augustine

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Reading I: 1 Kings 19:4-8

The events described in our First Reading today took place somewhere in the period 860-880 BC. Ahab, the King of Israel, is married to a woman named Jezebel. His wife has consistently supported and encouraged the worship of Baal:

“…bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.” – 1 Kings 18:19

Not only that, she had been attempting to crush the prophets of Yahweh:

While Jezebel was killing off the Lord’s prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water.) – 1 Kings 18:4,13

Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to prove who was the One, True God:

Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the Lord’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. Get two bulls for us. Let Baal’s prophets choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire —he is God.” – 1 Kings 18:22-24

After the prophets of Baal failed to call down fire, Elijah had his altar soaked with water and then he prayed:

 Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!” Then Elijah commanded them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Don’t let anyone get away!” They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there. – 1 Kings 18:38-40

Furious at the execution of the prophets, Jezebel set out to kill Elijah:

So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” – 1 Kings 19:2

Afraid, Elijah flees into the desert, and now we come to our First Reading for this Sunday…

Elijah went a day’s journey into the desert, until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it. He prayed for death saying: “This is enough, O LORD! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree, but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat. Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake and a jug of water. After he ate and drank, he lay down again, but the angel of the LORD came back a second time, touched him, and ordered, “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!” He got up, ate, and drank; then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.

Questions:

• What is the context of this passage? What has just taken place? Why is Elijah upset?
• How does the Lord respond to Elijah’s desperation?
• What happens next?
• What is the spiritual lesson from this passage? What is the allegorical interpretation?

Commentary:

Elijah…

This is the mighty prophet of God who was carried to Heaven on a chariot of fire 🙂

…went a day’s journey into the desert, until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it. 

Despite his recent successes and the mighty works performed through the power of the Lord, Elijah is afraid of Jezebel’s threats. He travels to a deserted place.

A “broom tree” is a desert shrub. A large one would have provided some shade.

He prayed for death saying: “This is enough, O LORD! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” 

Elijah is despairing. He thinks he has failed in his mission, that he has laboured in vain. He is tired and spent. He is afraid for his life and afraid that Jezebel will immediately undo all his work. I find it encouraging that, as mighty as Elijah was, even he could get afraid.

He prays for the peace of death. Could this also be demonstrating primitive faith in resurrection?

His lament reminds me of Jonah:

When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.” – Jonah 4:8

Elijah says that he’s no better than his fathers. Here he’s talking about his ancestors, who repeatedly failed God and broke the covenant.

He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree, …

Exhausted, he falls asleep. This is what I sometimes do when I’m I’m stressed.

…but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat. Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake and a jug of water. 

Elijah is woken with food and drink. God provides him with sustenance and demonstrates his care of him.

A similar thing had happened earlier when Ravens miraculously fed him:

The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. – 1 Kings 17:6

After he ate and drank, he lay down again, but the angel of the LORD came back a second time, …

Once was not enough! God needed his prophet strong again!

…touched him, and ordered, “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!” He got up, ate, and drank; 

It appears that the Lord knew that Elijah had decided to travel to Mt. Horeb.

…then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.

“Horeb” is another name for Mt. Sinai, located about 250 miles south of Beersheba. It is where Moses encountered the Burning Bush (Exodus 3:1)

The provision of the Lord was enough to see Elijah through to his destination, a journey of about 300 miles. Elijah could have traveled it in less than forty days, but the number “forty” is important. The number 40 is symbolic of trial, testing and preparation:

• Noah’s flood lasted forty days (Genesis 7:4)
• The time prior to God revealing Himself in the Burning Bush (Acts 7:30)
• Moses was on the mountain for forty days at the confirmation of the Covenant (Exodus 24:18)
•  Israel wandered for forty days in the desert for forty years (Acts 7:36)
• Our Lord was tempted in the desert for forty days prior to the beginning of His ministry (Matthew 4:2,11)

Likewise, these forty days will be a time of trial and preparation for Elijah, because on Horeb he will encounter the Lord and be given a new mission.

 

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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

This is a song of praise following deliverance at the hand of the Lord.

R. (9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall be ever in my mouth. Let my soul glory in the LORD; the lowly will hear me and be glad.

Glorify the LORD with me, Let us together extol his name. I sought the LORD, and he answered me And delivered me from all my fears.

Look to him that you may be radiant with joy. And your faces may not blush with shame. When the afflicted man called out, the LORD heard, And from all his distress he saved him.

The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. Taste and see how good the LORD is; blessed the man who takes refuge in him.

Questions:

• What is the theme of this psalm?
• How does it relate to the First Reading?

 

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Reading II: Ephesians 4:30-5:2

We have been reading for several weeks St. Paul’s moral exhortation to the Ephesians. He continues this week. Last week Paul spoke about interior renewal in a person’s life. This renewal allows the Christian to flee the vices and manifest the virtues described in this week’s Second Reading. When these virtues are emulated and vices avoided, the Church is able to live in the kind of unity spoken of by Paul several weeks ago.

Brothers and sisters: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. 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.

So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.

Questions:

• What are the exhortations of St. Paul this week?
• What does it mean to “grieve the Holy Spirit”? What does this tell us about the Spirit?
• What is the “seal” and “day of redemption” spoken of?
• What vices are listed?
• What virtues are listed?
• Whom should we imitate?

Commentary:

Brothers and sisters: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, …

In saying that we can “grieve the Holy Spirit”, the personhood of the Holy Spirit is affirmed by Paul, since only persons can be grieved. Paul has a description of the Exodus in mind here:

Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them. –  Isaiah 63:10

But what does it actually mean to grieve the Holy Spirit? We grieve the Holy Spirit when we sin against our brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ:

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit,just as you were called to one hope when you were called ; – Ephesians 4:3-4

Given the context of the surrounding verses, it appears that Paul has deststructive speech in mind within the Church:

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen…[this verse goes here]…Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. – Ephesians 4:29, 31

…with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. 

We were “sealed” when we became Christians:

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit – Ephesians 1:13

This sealing takes place in Baptism. Last week Jesus spoke of God’s seal being upon Him. When a soldier is marked with a seal he is under the protection of the seal’s owner:

“That we have been ‘sealed’ with the Holy Spirit means that both our spirit and our soul are  impressed with God’s own seal, signifying that we belong to Him. By this we receive in ourselves that image and likeness in which we were created at the outset … You are sealed so that you may be preserved to the end. You may show that seal on the day of redemption, pure and unblemished and not damaged in any part. You are thereby ready to be counted with those who are redeemed” – Saint Jerome (A.D. 436), Commentaries On The Epistle To The Ephesians, 2,4,30

This sealing may allude to the Passover when houses were marked with the blood of the lamb.

The “day of redemption” is when the work of salvation is complete:

[The Holy Spirit] is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory  – Ephesians 1:14

…who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. – 1 Peter 1:5

Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. – Romans 8:23

All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. 

None of these vices should be present in the life of a believer.

But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. – Colossians 3:8

“All this bitterness is not merely to be cleansed but to be put away altogether. Why should anyone try to contain it or hold it in? Why keep the beast of anger around so as to have to watch it constantly? It is possible to banish it, to expel it and drive it off to some mountain place” – Saint John Chrysostom (A.D. 392-397), Homilies On The Epistle To The Ephesians, 15,4,31

And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.

Instead, they should be filled with these virtues instead.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. – Colossians 3:12

We must forgive others as Christ forgave us:

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. – Luke 23:34

This was His own teaching…

“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.” – Matthew 5:23-24

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. – Matthew 6:12

…and it’s so important that our own salvation relies upon it…

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. – Matthew 6:14-15

So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.

Paul here alludes to the Alludes to the Old Testament sacrificial system:

Then burn the entire ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord, a pleasing aroma, a food offering presented to the Lord. – Exodus 29:18

We are called to imitate God, imitating the life of Christ. Love as god loves. Sacrifice ourselves like Christ:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. – Romans 12:1

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus – Philippians 2:5

You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe sufferingwith the joy given by the Holy Spirit. – 1 Thessalonians 1:6 

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. – 1 Corinthians 11:1

“You spare your friends. He spared His enemies. … He suffered on His enemies’ behalf. This is the fragrant offering, the acceptable sacrifice. If you suffer for your enemies as a fragrant offering, you too become an acceptable sacrifice, even if you die. This is what it means to imitate God” – Saint John Chrysostom (A.D. 392-397), Homilies On The Epistle To The Ephesians, 17,4,32-5,2

 

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Gospel: John 6:41-51

In our Gospel, we continue with our reading of the “Bread of Life Discourse” from John’s Gospel.

The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” and they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven?'” Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. 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.”

Questions:

• What have been the events leading up to this current discourse?
• How would you have reacted to Jesus’ words if you had been alive at the time?
• What is the objection initially raised?
• What is Jesus’ response?
• What claim does Jesus reiterate?
• How does Jesus compare Himself to the Manna? In what way is He superior?
• In what way will someone who eats the living bread “not die”?
• Do find yourself “murmur[ing]” against God? When? Why? What can we learn from this Scripture passage?

Commentary:

The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,”…

His listeners are confused because they know Jesus’ earthly ancestry. Who is this guy?! They have failed to do the “works of God” described in last week’s Gospel, namely, “believe in the one [The Father] has sent”. Instead, they “murmur” just like their ancestors in the desert:

 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron – Exodus 16:2

The Jews, so long as they thought to get food for their carnal eating, had no misgivings; but when this hope was taken away, then, we read, the Jews murmured at Him because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven”. This was only a pretense. The real cause of their complaint was that they were disappointed in their expectation of a bodily feast. – St. John Chrysostom

…and they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven?'” 

It is evident that they did not yet know of His miraculous birth: for they call Him the Son of Joseph. Nor are they blamed for this. Our Lord does not reply, “I am not the Son of Joseph”: for the miracle of His birth would have overpowered them. And if the birth according to the flesh were above their belief, how much more that higher and ineffable birth. – St. John Chrysostom

Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. 

Jesus makes some pretty big claims here. He says that if anyone listens to the Father, then that person will come to Jesus and, if they come to Jesus, it is the Father who is drawing him. Jesus is expressing something of the intimacy of the relationship between the Father and the Son. Jesus also says that He will raise people on at the end of time (“the last day”).

Great indeed is the Son’s dignity; the Father draws men, and the Son raises them up. This is no division of works, but an equality of power. He then shows the way in which the Father draws. – St. John Chrysostom

In “No one can come to be unless the Father…draw him”, we see something of grace:

This is the doctrine of grace: none comes, except he be drawn. But whom the Father draws, and whom not, and why He draws one, and not another, presume not to decide, if you would avoid falling into error. Take the doctrine as it is given you: and, if you are not drawn, pray that you may be. – St. Augustine

When Jesus says “It is written in the prophets”, He appears to be referring to two passages:

Though the mountains be shaken  and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken  nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you. “Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with lapis lazuli. I will make your battlements of rubies,your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones. All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great will be their peace. – Isaiah 54:10-13

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.  It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors 
when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” – Jeremiah 31:31-34

These passages point to a time of Messianic Kingdom fulfillment.

He uses the plural, In the Prophets, because all the Prophets being filled with one and the same spirit, their prophecies, though different, all tended to the same end; and with whatever any one of them says, all the rest agree; as with the prophecy of Joel, All shall be taught of God. – St. Bede

Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. 

Jesus unique relationship with the Father.

Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 

The double “amen” indicates something important follows. It is a life and death oath.

I am the bread of life. 

Jesus asserted this last week. It is one of the seven “I AM” statements in John’s Gospel. It points to His divinity.

Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. 

Jesus compares the manna with the “bread that comes down from heaven”. Despite the heavenly nature of the bread given to the Israelites, they all died. The bread of life, on the other hand…

And because they had taunted Him with the manna, He adds, “Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead”. Your fathers they are, for you are like them; murmuring sons of murmuring fathers. For in nothing did that people offend God more, than by their murmurs against Him. And therefore are they dead, because what they saw they believed, what they did not see they believed not, nor understood. – St. Augustine

The multitude being urgent for bodily food, and reminding Him of that which was given to their fathers, He tells them that the manna was only a type of that spiritual food which was now to be tasted in reality, I am that bread of life. – St. John Chrystostom

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.”

This is the third time Jesus calls Himself the Bread of Life. Eating this living bread, this gift of God leads to everlasting spiritual life.

But are we, who eat the bread that comes down from heaven, relieved from death? From visible and carnal death, the death of the body, we are not: we shall die, even as they died. But from spiritual death which their fathers suffered, we are delivered. Moses and many, acceptable of God, eat the manna, and died not, because they understood that visible food in a spiritual sense, spiritually tasted it, and were spiritually filled with it. And we too at this day receive the visible food; but the Sacrament is one thing, the virtue of the Sacrament another. Many a one receives from the Altar, and perishes in receiving; eating and drinking his own damnation, as said the Apostle. To eat then the heavenly bread spiritually, is to bring to the Altar an innocent mind. Sins, though they be daily, are not deadly. Before you go to the Altar, attend to the prayer you repeat: Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. If you forgive, you are forgiven: approach confidently; it is bread, not poison. None then that eat of this bread, shall die. But we speak of the virtue of the Sacrament, not the visible Sacrament itself; of the inward, not of the outward eater. – St. Augustine

There is a tense change here – Jesus says that He will give His flesh. This points to Calvary:

And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all – Hebrews 10:10

Our Lord wishes to reveal what He is; Verily, verily, I say to you, He that believes in Me, has everlasting life. As if He said; He that believes in Me has Me: but what is it to have Me? It is to have eternal life: for the Word which was in the beginning with God is life eternal, and the life was the light of men. Life underwent death, that life might kill death. – St. Augustine

…the bread which is taken by us in the mysteries [sacraments], is not only the sign of Christ’s flesh, but is itself the very flesh of Christ; for He does not say, “The bread which I will give, is the sign of My flesh”, but, “is My flesh”. The bread is by a mystical benediction conveyed in unutterable words, and by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, transmuted into the flesh of Christ. But why see we not the flesh? Because, if the flesh were seen, it would revolt us to such a degree, that we should be unable to partake of it. And therefore in condescension to our infirmity, the mystical food is given to us under an appearance suitable to our minds. He gave His flesh for the life of the world, in that, by dying, He destroyed death. By the life of the world too, I understand the resurrection; our Lord’s death having brought about the resurrection of the whole human race. It may mean too the sanctified, beatified, spiritual life; for though all have not attained to this life, yet our Lord gave Himself for the world, and, as far as lies in Him, the whole world is sanctified. – Theophyl 

Jesus proclaims that He is that bread. We eat this bread in the Eucharist:

This bread our Lord then gave, when He delivered to His disciple the mystery of His Body and Blood, and offered Himself to God the Father on the altar of the cross. – St. Bede

Whereas in the Lord’s Prayer, we are bidden to ask for ‘our daily bread,’ the Holy Fathers of the Church all but unanimously teach that by these words must be understood, not so much that material bread which is the support of the body, as of the Eucharistic bread, which ought to be our daily food –Pope St. Pius X