19^th Sunday in O.T. (B); 8-8-2021

1 Kgs 19:4-8.  Ps 34.  Eph 4:30-5:2.  Jn 6:41-51

Deacon Jim McFadden

            Homer’s Odyssey…Herman Melville’s Moby Dick…Jack Kerouac’s On the Road—all have something in common: as the main characters make their way through their respective narrative, they point to the journey of life and remind us that we are on a journey.

            In our first reading from the 1^st Book of Kings, we hear about Elijah’s life journey.  At the high point of his life, he faces down the prophets of Ba’al, the pagan god.  Elijah is on the top of Mount Carmel with 400 pagan prophets and challenges them to a prophetic duel: he says, let’s prepare a sacrifice; you call upon your god and I’ll call upon mine and we’ll see who responds.  It’s a great confrontation, a real test.  One can imagine how this duel would have been promoted on Pay-for-TV!

            The priests of Ba’al really get into it: they pray, dance themselves into a frenzy as if they were at a Rage gathering—all the while calling upon their god to do his thing.  Nothing happens.  Elijah taunts them: “So, maybe they’re taking a nap; maybe he’s deaf.  Keep calling him.”  So, they dial up their effort by working themselves into a frenzy: they call and call, slash themselves with swords and spears until they are a bloody mess; of course, nothing happens.

            In contrast, Elijah calmly calls upon Yahweh just once, who brings down fire to consume the sacrifice, proving that there’s only one true God: Yahweh.  With that, the crowd is astounded, and all the people fell prostrate as they exclaim: “The Lord is God!  The Lord is God!” (1 Kgs 19:39).  Elijah then commands the crowd to seize the pagan prophets and had them marched down to the brook Krishon, where he slit their throats.  Talk about winner take all!

            Well, one can imagine that the pagan Queen Jezebel was not a happy camper having 400 of her prophets humiliated and slaughtered; so, she had to do something to save face and maintain her imperial prerogatives.  Jezebel is married to King Ahab, who is the follower of the god  Ba’al.  If Ba’al is discredited, they will be as well; so, she sends her secret police and troops after Elijah, who is now on the run.  He is fleeing for his life and if they catch him, they will murder him.

            That’s the background; our first reading opens to his part of Elijah’s journey.  We hear that Elijah “went a day’s journey into the desert until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it.  He prayed for death: “This is enough, O Lord! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers” (v. 4). His life, which had just come to a high point with the confrontation of the pagan prophets, has now bottomed out: he’s discouraged, saddened, and so depressed that he wants God to take his life—he wants to die.  He is tired of running.

            The prophet’s prayer for death is not heard.  His mission has not yet been completed.  Then an angel of the Lord, a messenger from God, comes to him twice, offering him food and drink: “But then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat.  He looks up and there at his head is a hearth cake and a jug of water.  After he eats and drinks, he lays down again, but the angel of the Lord comes back a second time, touches him, and orders, “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!” (v. 5b-7).  This is a familiar biblical trope in which God reveals something in a dream or that people are roused from sleep in order to accept a mission from God.

            So, the angel of the Lord directs him to Mount Horeb (which is another name for Mt. Sinai, the holy mountain).  In the strength of the mysterious food and drink, Elijah is able to walk forty days, which is a very significant number as it signifies completeness.  Sustained by the miraculous food, he travels to the mountain to receive a revelation just as his ancestor Moses did.  So, we have a story that begins with desperation and ends with the prophet once again actively engaged in the affairs of God.

            Highlighting this story, we note that when Elijah wants to give up, he is given food and drink.  By virtue of these, he receives the power to move forward and he receives a renewed sense of direction and reaches his destination, God’s holy mountain.

            People of God, while we’re not being pursued by the agents of Jezebel, we do have to contend with evil influences; so, we can identify with the prophet Elijah.  Many of us, especially those who have lived a while, reach this point: life is really hard; we don’t’ have the energy that we once had when we were younger; the enthusiasm for life has waned.  It’s all we can do to get through the day and that was before we had to contend with the pandemic, racial discord,  threats to our democracy, and environmental degradation.  Life has really beaten us up.  There are only so many psychological blows that we can handle.  On top of that, our religious practice has become way too familiar, even mechanical.  Sometimes it seems that we’ve lost our sense of direction or purpose.  A lot of us become like Elijah the prophet.

            When we hit bottom like this, what do we need?  The same thing Elijah did: sustenance for the journey and a renewed sense of direction and purpose.  Today’s gospel, mirroring the Elijah story, tells us clearly where we can find it: in Jesus, who said, “I am the living bread…anyone who eats this bread will live forever” (Jn 6:51).  Notice two things: Jesus, the living bread is both the means and the end.  He’s both sustenance for the journey and he is the destination.  Church, the Eucharist is this reality: it is both the means and end of the journey.

            Notice something peculiar: Jesus refers to himself as “living bread.”  Now bread is many things: it’s fresh, savory, and pleasant to smell and taste, but it is not alive.  If you went to the super-market and asked where you can find the “living bread section”, you would get some odd looks.  When we eat bread, it becomes absorbed into our body, becoming muscle and bone; in a way, we could say that is has become “living bread” as it has become assimilated into us.

            But here, it works the other way: as we celebrate the Holy Mass, we enter into the dynamic energy of God when we offer ourselves as gift symbolized by bread and wine.  In return we receive the self-gifting, the Real Presence of Christ himself.  When we consume the Eucharist, we don’t make bread and wine become alive; rather, that consecrated, heavenly bread makes us become alive because it assimilates us to it!  When we receive Communion, we are becoming conformed to the Body of Christ, which we were initiated into at baptism.  When we receive his Body and Blood, we are receiving his soul and divinity.  When that happens, we are drawn into his Being, into his divine Life.  We now have the means to see as Jesus sees and to live a life similar to his: to value all we do as serving the Father. 

            People of God, the Eucharist is also the end: we have a taste of heaven on earth, because we enter into the mystery of God.  Through the Eucharist, we experience heaven in space and time.  We experience a oneness with God, each other, and all of Creation.  We experience a fulness of self, because we are one with God—which is what our heart desires now and forever!

            So, if you want to have sustenance and courage for the journey, make the Eucharist, the living bread, the very center of your life.  If you want the joy and satisfaction of a life fully imbued with God, receive Jesus’ gift of living bread.  Amen.