NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
8 AUGUST 2021
Elijah
addresses a prayer to God in the first reading.
As the only remaining prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel, he had
won a stunning victory over the pagan prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Through his efforts, God had consumed the
sacrifice offered on the altar. Elijah
then slit the throats of the pagan prophets.
However, in winning that victory, he had enraged the pagan Queen,
Jezebel, who now had sent her armies to pursue and kill him. Feeling that God had abandoned him, he asks
for a peaceful death in the desert.
Instead,
God sends an angel to give him a hearth cake and a jug of water. Hearth cakes are dense and dry, formed simply
from flour and water. On land, it is
known as “hardtack” and at sea “sea biscuit.”
Hearth cakes are easy to carry, packing a lot of calories, and they last
for months. Because they are not
particularly tasteful and hard to bite into, travelers must soak them in water
before eating them. Strengthened by this
food and water, Elijah walks through the desert to Mound Horeb (also known as
Mount Sinai). There his prayer is
answered in a way he could never have expected.
God had formed the Covenant on that mountain with Moses. Now Elijah encounters that same God, with the
Covenant sealed and continued for all time.
The crowd
in today’s Gospel also addresses a prayer to Jesus. They had been impressed when he fed 5,000
people with five barley loaves and two fish in a deserted place. They have followed him around the Sea of
Galilee. Now, they want him to continue
to feed them, as Moses had fed their ancestors in the desert. Instead, he tells them that their prayer will
be fulfilled in ways they could never have expected. Once they can accept the truth about him,
they can embrace the mystery of the Incarnation. He is the living bread come down from
heaven. He will give himself to them and
nourish them for eternal life. We who
have read the Prologue to the Gospel of Saint John know this truth. He is the Incarnate Word who has pitched his
tent and dwells among us. But they
refuse to believe him, because they think that they know his origins. They know his mother and the one whom they
presume is his father.
We too
address prayers to God on a daily basis.
We ask for any number of good things:
health for ourselves and for our children. We ask for a good job to provide for our
families. We ask the Lord to spare our
afflicted friends and relatives from death.
We ask for a quick end to this current pandemic, which is raising its
ugly head again. It is fine to ask for
these things, as Elijah asked for a peaceful death in the desert, and as the
crowd in the Gospel asked for food.
Sometimes the Lord answers these prayers in the way we ask. At other times he does not.
But he
promises us what he promised that crowd on the shore of the Sea of
Galilee. He promises an intimate
relationship with him that even death cannot destroy. His promise rests in the Eucharist we
celebrate. If we eat the unleavened
flour and water that has been transformed into his Body, we will live
forever. Not only that, but we will be
strengthened by this bread from heaven to continue our journey, just as Elijah
was strengthened by the hearth cakes and water on his journey to meet the Lord
on Mount Horeb.
That is why
we will be dismissed at the end of this Mass and told to go in peace. As Saint Augustine noted, we become what we
receive. We are formed a little more
into the Body of Christ to be imitators of God, as Saint Paul points out to the
Ephesians. We can be more kind to one
another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven us in
Christ. Those simple actions have a
greater effect than we think, especially in our troubled and divided world.
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