August 12, 2012

19th Sunday of Ordinary Time

First Reading: 1 Kings 19:4-8

    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." He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree, but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat. He looked and there at his head was a hearth cake and a jug of water. After he ate and drank, he lay down again, but the angel of the LORD came back a second time, touched him, and ordered, "Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!" He got up, ate and drank; then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.

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Second Reading: Ephesians 4:30-5:2

   Brothers and sisters, do not grieve the holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.

Gospel Reading: John 6:41-51

   The Jews murmured about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven," and they said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus answered and said to them, "Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: 'They shall all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."

Reflection: Fr. James Theophilus 

   The Jews were caught between visible reality and the invisible reality; between human conditions and the divine conditions; between the human relations and the divine origin etc. They began to murmur about Jesus because they could not accept the divine origin of Jesus. Their eyes could see Jesus as the son of Joseph but their faith was not able to Jesus the son of God.
   They believed in God and they acknowledged the activities of God in Exodus. They were celebrating this God in Passover and in fact they accepted God in the past. This God was also present here and now. He is present in Jesus and he is doing the same mighty works in and through Jesus. Their faith was so weak that they were not able to see God in Jesus. Only those who believe that Jesus has come down from the father have eternal life.