Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jan 30 2025

Even Prophets Get the Blues

A favorite aunt once said to me, “We are living too long.” Her words stemmed from heart congestion that had sent her again and again to the hospital to have fluid drained from her lungs.

She was tired of it all and weary of life. She was having an Elijah moment. The prophet Elijah became weary of life. His recent work had brought on the wrath of the infamous Queen Jezebel (for the story, read 1 Kings 18:1 — 19:3), and she wanted his head. So Elijah goes out to the desert, asking God to let him die. But God still had work for him and dispatched an angel with food, drink, and a message: “Get up, eat, and move on. You’re not finished yet.” And Elijah found he had enough strength to walk for forty days to meet God on Mount Horeb. (My aunt also found she had the strength to go on.)

All of this goes to prove that God is the One in charge.

Jesus tells the Jews that his Father is in charge and that, if they listen to the Father, they will learn that he sent Jesus to bring eternal life. They think they know who Jesus is, reducing him to “the son of Joseph.” But Jesus is making it clear who he is to those murmuring and to us who might murmur: the One sent by the Father, who will raise us up on the last day, who has seen the Father, who is the bread of life.

Consider/Discuss

Have you had any “Elijah moments” lately?
Where did Elijah get his strength to go on?
Did you recognize who gave it to him?

Responding to the Word

Father, we ask you for whatever strength we need to do the work you have given us to do. Send your Spirit into our hearts to remove any bitterness, anger, or malice that has taken up residence there. Help us to be imitators of your Son, Jesus Christ.

Jan 30 2025

Scripture Study for

The prophet Elijah goes into the desert, not to pray or to recommit himself to the service of the Lord, but in the hope that he will die. The office of prophet has become too heavy to bear. He sits under a broom tree, hoping to die. His prayer is not heard; his mission has not yet been completed. Instead, an angel of the Lord brings him food and drink. Then in the strength of this mysterious food and water, he walks forty days and forty nights, arriving at Horeb, the mountain of revelation. A story that begins in desperation ends with the prophet once again actively involved in God’s affairs.

The second reading opens with a plea directed to the Christians not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God. They have been sealed by this Spirit, a seal that is a pledge of the fulfillment of their redemption. The author then urges the Christians to live lives of generosity of heart, compassion, tolerance, and patience. They are to forgive others as God has forgiven them, by accepting the sacrifice of Christ on their behalf. The Trinitarian theology is obvious. As imitators of God, and after the example of Christ, they have been called to live according to the Spirit.

The exchange between Jesus and his opponents was meant to enhance the status of one member of the exchange as it diminished the status of the other. In a clever turn of phrase, Jesus declares that only those drawn by God will be drawn to the one who was sent by God. If one does not come to him, it is probably a sign that person was never called by God. This argument ends with a declaration of Jesus’ ultimate authority and power. Not only is he the one who came down from heaven, but he is the one who will raise people up from the dead, for whoever believes this has eternal life.

Jan 28 2025

The Bread of Life

The song makes me quake inside even now. The first time I heard it, I was at a large conference. Still young in faith, I sang the chorus with my whole being as several thousand people processed toward the altar, “And I will raise you up, and I will raise you up, and I will raise you up on the last day.” My ribcage swelled with elation. My mind floated into grandeur. My heart burned with the promise of eternal life. There was nothing so rich as the Bread of Life, here, present among us.

Strengthened by that food, I have walked for the forty years that have followed.

The song goes on: “You who come to me shall not hunger; you who believe in me shall not thirst.” The internal quavering starts again: the vision so rich, the reality so imperfect. I want not to thirst. I want not to be hungry. But I thirst. I hunger. That chasm between what could be and what is, that ache, that yearning for something more, trembles within me.

I walk down the steps. My thumb and forefinger dip into the ciborium, select a small round host and hold it up to the first young man in line: “The Body of Christ.” People come forward in a stream. Hands extend in front of me: rough hands, manicured hands. Some tongues lengthen. Then more hands: flat hands, young hands, shrunken hands, eager hands.

“The Bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world,” sings the congregation. Do we recognize the magnitude of what we are doing here? No? A little bit? I shiver again as we sing, “Yes, Lord, I believe, that you are the Christ . . .” And they keep coming. Palms unfold, reaching for the Bread of Life, murmuring “Amen,” “Amen,” “Amen,” to the grandeur in our midst.

Consider/Discuss

God asks us to sing a song of surrender as we receive the Body of Christ. We have nothing to give but ourselves as we open our hands. In the strength of that food, how can we walk another forty years, even if it takes us into the gates of heaven?
Creation is radiant with the splendor of God. Sometimes we perceive that glory. Other times, the world just looks drab. On this summer day, with the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, where do we see the grandeur of God “flaming out”? Is it only in church? Do we experience it at other times as well?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord Jesus, Bread of Life, your love burns within me. Your Body and Blood sustain me. Your life invigorates me. And yet, never do I get enough of you. On this side of heaven, I still shake with longing for you to come, come heal the brokenness of this world and my life. I cannot grasp you. But you seize me. You are with us in the breaking of the bread. Amen.

Jan 28 2025

Scripture Study for

As God’s prophet, Elijah makes enemies of king Ahab and his wife, Jezebel. In the scene immediately preceding the reading, Elijah has bested Jezebel’s prophets of Baal, whom he puts to death (18:1–46). Jezebel’s response is predictable: she will have the head of the prophet, who now flees for his life into the wilderness (19:1–3). Here we find him praying for death. But his task as God’s man is not done, and so an angel comes to bring him some food. This, then, is not simply a story of God providing food, but is particularly a story of God providing food to sustain the prophet so that he can continue divinely-commanded work.

Paul reminds the Gentile Ephesians that they have been brought into the household of God in Christ through baptism and “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” (1:13). Those who fail to conform to the character of God by “living in love,” the same self-giving love shown to them in Christ’s “sacrificial offering,” grieve the Spirit who has been given to them as a pledge of their adoption. The emphasis here, as throughout the letter, is that the church, as the people of God formed to announce God’s salvation, must in its internal and external relationships reflect the love that motivates that salvation. The world must be able to see God’s love in the church created by God.

When Jesus announces to the people that he is the “bread come down from heaven,” the bread the people have asked to receive, they turn on him. Jesus cannot possibly have “come down from heaven”— they know exactly who he is, the “son of Joseph.” Jesus’ call to “stop murmuring” recalls Israel’s “murmuring” in the wilderness when they didn’t believe that God would provide for them (Exodus 16:2, 7–8). The theme of belief thus now comes to the fore. Only those who listen to God (a form of belief) are able to believe further that Jesus has been sent by God and that he, indeed his very flesh, is the bread of life, which is far greater than any manna.

Jan 15 2025

When Sinking, Call on the Lord

We all have moments of feeling “down,” times of discouragement, depression, loss, fear, anxiety, (fill in the blank). Such “moods” can descend unexpectedly or result from a particular event. They can pass quickly or stay longer. The three main characters in today’s scriptures are having such a moment.

After Elijah had his showdown with the prophets of Baal in Israel and led the Israelites in slaughtering them, word came that Jezebel wanted him killed, so he set out into the desert. There, he sat down and said to God, “Enough! Life is unbearable. Let me die.” But God wasn’t finished with Elijah, and sent an angel with some food and drink and told him to walk “forty days” to Mount Horeb (Sinai). There, God appeared.

Paul would go first into the synagogues to preach about Jesus as Israel’s long awaited Messiah. But the response was not overwhelming. Often he was run out of town, beaten, or tossed into jail. We hear his grief today. Still, he trusts God will work it out, and later proclaims, “God has not rejected his people . . . For the gifts and call of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:2, 29).

Perhaps Peter is the most instructive for our “sinking” occasions. He was doing fine until he lost focus. As long as he looked to Jesus, he walked on water. When he focused on the wind and the waves, he sank. When he re-focused on Jesus and cried out for help, Jesus’ hand caught him. There seems to be a lesson here.

Consider/Discuss

What gets you “down”?
Do you cry out to the Lord and ask for help?

Responding to the Word

Today’s responsorial psalm assures us that “Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him” and “The Lord himself will give his benefits.” In those times when the waves of chaos threaten to overwhelm us, we can pray: “Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.”