19^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B); August 11, 2024

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

Deacon Jim McFadden

       God is always present, always available which we’re reminded in Deuteronomy 4: “For what great nation is there that has gods to close to it as the Lord, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him” (v. 7). Both the first reading and the Gospel remind us to look for ways that we can encounter God Who is always available,  which leads to transformation.

            In the first reading from 1 Kings, the prophet Elijah finds safety in the wilderness where he encounters God, Who sustains him with a hearth cake and water.  Elijah was a fugitive on account of his conflict with Queen Jezebel and King Ahab.  Jezebel was a Phoenician princess in Ahab’s Israel, who gradually led the Chosen People away from God as she made war against biblical and traditional values, including her most horrific act of introducing child sacrifice, which she saw as a sacred rite.  She was ultimately warring against the living God, which is where Elijah enters the picture. He faces off the prophets of Ba’al, the pagan god, in a dramatic confrontation in which the power of Yahweh brings down fire to consume the sacrifice, proving that there is only one true God: Yahweh.  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) hence beginning the process of reversing their apostacy. 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”.

            Queen Jezebel has been humiliated having 400 of her false prophets slaughtered; so, he had to do something to save face and to maintain her imperial prerogatives of transforming Israel into a pagan culture.  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 and on the face of it, Elijah’s prospects of surviving against the full weight of the imperial court, don’t look good.  But Elijah is a man uncompromised, undivided, single-minded, and focused.  Why?  He had encountered God in the “tiny whispering sound” (cf. v. 12b) of a gentle breeze and he could do no other.  While others have been compromised by the evil of their day, Elijah had been transformed by his encounter with the One true God.  So, he took a radical and uncompromised stance that allowed him to change the course of his nation because he was cooperating with God’s will and grace. 

            People of God, the prophet Elijah was led to the moment on Mount Carmel, where he challenged the people to make a choice.  He stood up and cried out to the nation of Israel to make a choice: in between the two altars and two gods, he challenged the people who are you going to choose; who are you going to serve? 

            Today, our country stands at the crossroads.  And just as Elijah came to the summit of Mount Carmel to make a declaration, we have come to a point where we declare that our God is the triune God and is not Ba’al with its contemporary permutations, most notably the secular vision of reality that is egocentric.    We have come to our own time and place and declare that there is only one God: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob  and our country cannot endure if  we live in such a way that is contrary to God’s purposes and will.   God is our rock and we will not bow down to our contemporary Ba’al.

            Brothers and sisters, we cannot give an enduring witness to the one True God unless we are radically sustained.  We need the same thing that Elijah needed: sustenance for the journey and renewed sense of direction and purpose. Today’s Gospel, mirroring the Elijah story, tells us clearly where we can find it: Jesus, who said, “I am the living bread…anyone who eats this bread will live forever.”  We have encountered Jesus in our initiation into the Church at our baptism and confirmation.  We are transformed by Him as we receive the “Bread of Life.”  In other words,  Jesus nourishes our soul by giving us His very self through the consecrated Bread and Wine.  He alone forgives us from the evil that we cannot overcome on our own.  As we receive Him, as we receive his soul and divinity, we are gradually being transformed to the very core of our being, which sums up our very existence and empowers us to continue his mission.  God became man to enter the concrete reality of our world so that it could be transformed from within.  God became man for you, for me, for all of us in order to enter our life so that the Kingdom of God, the Good News can be realized. 

            God can be resisted, but he cannot be overcome.  The Eucharist is the Bread of Life and it is also the end: we have a taste of heaven here on earth.  When we encounter Jesus at Holy Mass, we are being transformed as we are drawn into his very being, into his divine life.  As we do, we experience the fulness of what it means to be a human being because we are at-one with God.  That’s what changes the world: the living Bread, the Eucharist, becomes the very center of human existence. 

            May the Blessed Virgin Mary, in whom the Word became flesh, help us to grow day after day in friendship with Jesus, the Bread of Life.  Amen.

Reflection Questions:

1. Do you see a parallel phenomenon today  of  Jezebel  who  made war against biblical and traditional values, including her most horrific act of introducing child sacrifice?
2. Elijah encountered God in the “tiny whispering sound.”  Have you had that encounter with God?
3. Can our country  endure if  we live in such a way that is contrary to God’s purposes and will?