Divine Nourishment
August 11, 2024 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time - B
by Dcn. Bob Bonomi
In today’s first reading, Elijah is TIRED. Not just physically, as from lack of sleep or physical exercise. But emotionally – spiritually – he’s worn out. He’s obeyed the Lord and overcome the prophets of Baal, but even though he “won”, he feels despair as now he’s being hunted because Queen Jezebel wants him dead.
We should take a moment to recap Elijah’s story. I find it interesting that we don’t have much of a back-story for him – unlike the prophets Jeremiah or Isaiah or Ezekiel who talk about their “calling”, we don’t know how Elijah was called – and the Bible doesn’t contain a “book” dedicated to his writings and actions, like many of the other prophets.
In fact, the historical record of his actions is really only found in the 1st and 2nd Book of Kings, although he is named in not only the Old and New Testaments (including Sirach and Malachi), but in the Jewish Talmud and Mishnah, and even in Islam’s Quran. All three of the Synoptic Gospels has him with Moses conversing with Jesus during the Transfiguration, and Jesus himself refers to John the Baptist as the fulfillment of the prophecy from Malachi of the coming of Elijah the prophet. His role in salvation history is pivotal to our faith.
The story of Elijah can be divided into three parts. The first describes how he proclaimed a drought on God’s authority and how he survived the drought, the second is how he ended the drought by destroying the prophets of Baal and bringing the populace back to exclusive worship of the Lord. The third part has Elijah despairing at his sense of failure of his prophetic mission, his journey to Mount Horeb to resign from his prophetic office, and God picking his successor.
So today we have Elijah, having fled Jezebel and King Ahab, sitting under a broom tree. He’s a fugitive; he’s tired, and he asks God to let him die.
It probably isn’t hard to imagine how he’s feeling. How many times in our own lives have we felt that weariness – that sense of depression, of not wanting to go on. Maybe we think we’ve done everything right, or at least not everything wrong, and yet it seems like the world is still out to get us. We cry to God: “It isn’t fair! I’m tired, Lord, and I don’t want to fight anymore. I don’t have the strength to face whatever is to come. Let me go.”
But God wasn’t through with Elijah, and He’s not done with us, either. He feeds Elijah with heavenly food, brought to him by an angel. He gives us Himself through Jesus in the Eucharist.
This is not the first time Elijah received miraculous food. The first was when ravens brought him meat and bread as he fled the first time from King Ahab; the second was when he was living with the widow and her son in Zarephath and the flour and oil miraculously didn’t run dry during the three years of the drought. And the bread and water that he received today will give him the strength to travel another 40 days until he reaches Mount Horeb, where he will find out what God has planned for him next.
Which brings us to today’s Gospel, the continuation of Jesus’ Discourse on the Bread of Life. We’ve been reading from it for the last two Sundays, and we’ll continue to read from it for the next two Sundays as well. Throw in Easter and Corpus Christi Sundays and the couple of others which focus on the Last Supper and it’s easy to see why the Church holds that the Eucharist is the “source and summit” of our faith. But why?
Because We Need Food To Live, To Give Us Strength For Our Journey.
We need to always keep in mind the context of the nature of the food that Jesus is talking about whenever He refers to Himself as the Bread of Life. He’s not talking about nourishment for just the physical part of our journey, although that is important to us. But He is spiritual food, and without it we cannot complete the most important part of the journey – the spiritual part.
At all times our lives are a journey through life. We know the destination. Heaven. And we know that the journey is both physical and spiritual.
We are like a train, and our life path follows the two rails which allow a train to travel. Without both rails, the train cannot move. And just as we need physical nourishment for our bodies, we also need spiritual food for our soul in order to reach our destination.
God knew Elijah needed food. Elijah didn’t. Elijah wanted to give up – to die. God wouldn’t let him. Note that it says that the angel woke him and ordered him to eat – not once, but twice. The angel told him that if he didn’t eat, that the journey would be too long.
When we are physically tired or ill, it can be hard to eat. Often, food doesn’t even sound good. Often, we can’t even appreciate the flavor of food. Especially when we are ill, food just doesn’t taste “right”.
I think the same can be said for our need for spiritual food. When we are hurt or tired or emotionally drained, sometimes we think it would be better if we could just “sleep”. We want to give up before we can even find out what God has planned for us, or even why we are going through whatever it is that we face.
Whether we recognize it or not, God sends His angels to order us to get up and eat. He sends us His Son to nourish us in the Scriptural Words we hear, and in His Divine Presence in the Eucharist.
Sometimes it can be hard to recognize spiritual food. The Eucharist usually still tastes like the bread it was before consecration, and I can easily fall asleep while reading the Bible or other spiritual sources. Honestly, if I cannot sleep at night, I will begin reciting the Rosary and there’s been very few times that God’s angels haven’t had to finish it for me.
But in the journey of life, it takes some sort of spiritual help to persevere. I’ve been reading an interesting book called, “The Way of A Pilgrim” by an anonymous Russian writer. In it, the author details his spiritual journey to discover what St. Paul means when he says to “pray without ceasing”, and how, even when he faced obstacles, how God sent guides to journey with him. And when all else fails, to pray: “Lord Jesus, Son of God, Have Mercy on Me.” It is good advice to all of us.
Remember, we need spiritual food just as much as physical food. And so, come, nourish yourself in His Divine Presence.
