A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (Series 4, n. 38)
19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – August 13, 2006
“The Food That Strengthens”
BIBLE READINGS
I Kgs 19:4-8 // Eph 4:30-5:2 // Jn 6:41-51
N.B. This new series of BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD: A LECTIO DIVINA APPROACH TO THE SUNDAY LITURGY presents a biblico-liturgical study of the First Reading of each Sunday Mass to serve as background for a better understanding of the Gospel proclaimed in the liturgy. For a biblico-liturgical study of the Gospel for each Sunday, please go to the PDDM Web Archives: WWW.PDDM.US.
I. BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS
Here is a news report I read in the Fresno Bee (July 24, 2006) about the rescue of a young boy from India, trapped for two days in a 60-foot deep irrigation shaft. The story broke into international prominence after the private Zee News channel lowered a camera into the pit and captured haunting images of a child crying helplessly in the dark.
Prince fell into the freshly dug hole Friday evening when he was playing in Aldeharhi, a village in the northern state of Haryana. The shaft, covered only with an empty jute sack, was just wide enough to fit the boy and too narrow for an adult. When villagers and local police could not pull him out, they sought the help of the army. Over two days, soldiers from an engineering regiment scooped out drums of mud from an abandoned well 10 feet away from the hole, taking care not to use heavy machinery so soil would not cave in on the boy. Oxygen was pumped into the pit and rescuers talked to the boy to keep his morale up. Rescuers and TV viewers alike could watch the boy looking around timidly, munching on chocolate and biscuits and drinking milk from a can that had been lowered in by rope. With their bare hands, soldiers then created a pipe-reinforced connecting passageway to the irrigation shaft. One soldier reached Prince and, along with four others, took him back through the pipe and up the abandoned well. Making a gripping story even better, Prince was rescued on his birthday. Prince turned 5 on Sunday.
The drama surrounding the rescue of the five-year old Prince evokes the intensity and power of the story of the rescue of the prophet Elijah that we hear in this Sunday’s First Reading (I Kgs 19:4-8). The rescue in both cases comes from the loving intervention of those who care and involves providing food as life-giving sustenance.
The story of the rescue of the prophet Elijah from imminent death results from divine intervention and underlines God’s miraculous providence for those who love him. The totally exhausted and discouraged Elijah, pursued by the ruthless, enraged Queen Jezebel, was revived by the angel’s food and strengthened for his journey towards Mount Horeb and an intimate encounter with God on a cleft of that mountain.
The authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 5, explain: “In the Bible, Elijah is a historical personage, legendary in nature … In the 9th century B.C., like a fire there appeared the prophet, whose words were as a flaming furnace (Sir 48:1). It was a tragic time for the religious future of Israel and the survival of the covenant. Under the influence of a dynasty of impious kings and queens, God, who had made Israel his people, whose Lord he was to remain, saw the competition of the worship of Phoenician and Canaanite gods – the Baals – that personified personal forces. At the risk of his life, Elijah rose with vehemence against this intolerable apostasy: I have been most zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, but the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to the sword. I alone am left, and they seek to take my life (I Kgs 19:10). He had believed that the manifestation of the Lord’s power and the public demonstration of the nothingness of the Baals at the sacrifice of Mount Carmel (I Kgs 19:20-40) would bring King Ahab back to the worship of God. But he had not reckoned with Queen Jezebel. Learning that Baal’s priests have been put to sword, she sends a message to Elijah, May the gods do thus and so to me if by this time tomorrow I have not done with your life what was done to each of them (I Kgs 19:2). He saves his life by precipitously fleeing to the Negeb desert. Exhausted after a day’s march, at a fast pace no doubt, he sits down in the shade of a bush. Discouragement overwhelms him, along with the feeling of lamentable failure: This is enough, O Lord! Take my life for I am no better than my fathers (I Kgs 19:5).”
Rather than allow him to die, God sent an angel to the despairing and weakened Elijah to feed him with sconce bread and with a jug of water. Twice the angel had to touch Elijah and coax him to eat “the bread of the strong”. The final note of the story of his rescue is heart-warming and fascinating: “He got up, ate, and drank; then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb” (I Kgs 19:8). The symbolism of Elijah’s journey of “forty days and forty nights” through the wilderness and the miraculous food that sustained him is parallel to the “forty years” in the desert and the manna from heaven that sustained the chosen people Israel in their journey through the desert towards the Promised Land. This Sunday’s liturgy evidently wants us to see in the feeding and rescue of Elijah a figure of the Eucharist, “the living bread that came down from heaven” to strengthen the Christian disciples in their journey of faith to God. The Eucharist, in its twofold dimension as bread of the Word (divine revelation and teaching) and Sacrament (real presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the form of food and drink), is the source of life and strength of every disciple and of the entire Church. The Eucharist is truly our food and strength for the journey.
The authors of the Days of the Lord, vol. 5, conclude: “The bread of the strong is given to us … The life of the Church and of the believers is an exodus, a time of trial, often a crossing of the wilderness. But God remains near those who do not despair of him, even when the burden that crushes them leads them to say, It is enough, Lord.” Indeed, we too need to trust in the love, care and providence of God for each of us. We need to trust in God’s commitment to provide for our needs. The Eucharist is “the bread of the strong” – the sustaining spiritual food that enables us to cross the wilderness of trials and difficulties in union with Christ, the Bread of Life, towards “eternal life” with God. In the Eucharist – the food that sustains us for our spiritual journey – is the pledge of eternal life.
PERSONAL REFLECTION
By Fr. Joseph Tran
Holy Child's Parish, Staten Island, NY-U.S.A.
Why we can not become chicken when we eat chicken? But we become one body with Jesus when we commune the Eucharist? What is special in our digestion? The chapter Sixth of the Gospel of Saint John has answer for this question. It is one of most important chapter that Saint John ever wrote, for it conveys to us all that Jesus himself explained concerning the Eucharist, which he calls "the bread of life, the bread which came down from heaven".
Sometimes we think that if we lived in Jesus’ time it would easier for us to believe. But this passage makes it clear not only that is faith a gift, but that to believe we must have certain dispositions of the heart. Those who murmur against Jesus are closing themselves off to the gift of faith. But all who listen with humility and an open heart will be drawn by the Father’s love to Jesus. Today we need these same dispositions. Without them, what God reveals will seem too difficult to accept or live out. It may even appear absurd to our way of thinking, our way of reasoning. We need to be less sure of ourselves and more dependent on listening to what God is saying to us in order to receive the gift of faith.
Some refuse to see any reference to the Eucharist here. In fact, in this discourse, what is being spoken of is not bread and wine such as that which we see being used during the Eucharistic celebration. Nevertheless, this is a false problem. For, during the Eucharistic celebration, the priest repeats the words of Jesus: "This is my Body" and "This is my Blood"; while here, in Saint John, Jesus says: "I am the bread of life." (Jn. 6:48) Now, all of this is the expression of a single mysterious reality which presented under two different aspects. The first aspect consists in saying that this food is the Body of Christ; the second aspect, that the Body of Jesus is this food. Thus, in Saint John there is an inversion, another presentation of the Eucharistic mystery. And this is what leads some to believe, incorrectly, that the sixth chapter of Saint John is not a commentary on the Eucharist. On the contrary, it is the best such commentary, that which comes closest to the reality, for it is presented and commented on by Jesus himself. But, in one sense or the other, the Eucharistic mystery - like any other mystery - requires faith. Thus, we understands the surprise of the Jews to whom Jesus addressed his words, for, without faith, it was impossible for them to accept these words of the Master.
Faith! What a great virtue! Thanks to it, wonders were carried out throughout the ages! Thanks to it, today we ourselves believe! But faith, true faith, is nothing without love. It is love, which is the driving force of faith, it is love which pushes the men and women living on this earth to believe in God with all their heart! Now, the only thing, which can lead to making love act is love itself: for only love draws love. The Father, almighty God, God all-love, it is he and he alone who can draw our love, and, in this way, activate our faith which leads us to Jesus, the beloved Son of the Father: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him."
Faith and love do good work: together, they lead us towards God, towards that food, which is the Word of God. Faith and love are the means which make it possible for us to receive within him the life; The Word of Life, the very Life of God: "He who believes has eternal life." However, even if faith makes it possible for love to live eternally, it is only a beginning of eternity which is given to us who loves God: for faith is a trial which lasts until the end of our life on earth, a trial which we must undergo, a trial we must endure to the end, with perseverance.
A strong faith, a powerful faith, a faith supported by the very power of the Love of God, such a faith gives us the power to not die in eternity, even if we must die in time, at the hour chosen by God. The object of this faith and love, the Eucharist - the bread of eternal life - gives us who receives it worthily the power to not die in eternity! "I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever."
The manna, which sustained the Israelites in the desert was a foreshadowing of the Eucharist. God fed his people with manna throughout their long journey to the Promised Land. Yet that bread did not give eternal life; indeed the Israelites rebelled and complained and fell into sin again and again. They were looking more for their material comfort and satisfaction in this world than for the hope and joy that comes from being led by God to a new life. In the Eucharist, God feeds us with the Bread of Eternal Life, leading us through the journey of this life to an entirely new life in him. Let us renew our faith in the True Bread that gives us life.
The digestion of our spiritual life has reversed with our natural life. Eternal life begins now for those who believe that Jesus is the Bread of Life. Through faith in the Eucharist, we enter into a new life that is different than a life seeking only pleasure and comfort within the material confines of our limited life. Ultimately, human life -- even the richest, most successful, and most powerful -- becomes a gray monotony unless there is hope in something new and greater than this live here on earth. To live forever is not simply to go on endlessly in time. It is to enter into a new dimension, into a life in God, who is our true fulfillment and peace.
Let us ask Mary, the Mother of Fairest Love, to help us to commune of the Body of Christ with strong faith and with love without end, in the hope of the eternal life which will manifest itself in the risen Jesus when he appears on the last day!
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART
A. What dire situations are we experiencing in the present which make us cry out, just like the distressed Elijah, “It is enough, Lord”? Do we ever feel that death or oblivion is better than “living”? What do we do when we are pushed to the edge of despair?
B. Do we trust that God cares and provides for those who love him? What are our experiences of God’s intervention in our life? Is the “Elijah event” ever replicated in our personal experience? Do we believe that the Lord God continues to work “miracles” in our life? Do we trust that God is our Savior and will continue to rescue us in our moments of sadness and distress?
C. Do we believe that the Eucharist is the food that strengthens – the “angel’s food” to nourish us in our spiritual journey in the here and now? Do we endeavor to taste and see the goodness of the Lord in the Eucharist? Do we recognize that the greatest food for the journey is the person of Jesus Christ himself, of which the Eucharist is a limpid and intense sacrament?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
(Cf. “O Esca Viatorum” – traditional)
O food of travelers, O bread of angels, O manna of the heavenly!
Nourish the hungry;
do not deprive of sweetness the hearts of those who seek you.
O lymph, font of love, which flows from the pure Heart of the Savior!
Quench the thirsty:
These alone are our vows; you are enough for them.
O Jesus, we adore your face hidden under the appearances of the veil,
we will see you in heaven, face to face.
IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“Strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.” (I Kgs 19:4-8)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
A. ACTION PLAN: Pray for the many people around the world who are experiencing acute pain, intense distress and terrible trials, just like what Elijah has experienced. Be an instrument of God’s care and love for these people. Endeavor to lead these people to the Eucharist and help them experience the strength that Jesus, the Bread of Life, offers to the afflicted.
B. ACTION PLAN: To help us contemplate more deeply and thank the Lord God for the gift of the Eucharist, the life-giving Bread and the food that strengthens, make an effort to spend an hour in Eucharistic Adoration. Visit the PDDM Website (www.pddm.us) for the EUCHARISTIC ADORATION THROUGH THE LITURGICAL YEAR (Vol. 2, n. 38): A Weekly Pastoral Tool.
Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang PDDM
PIAE DISCIPULAE DIVINI MAGISTRI
SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER
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Website: WWW.PDDM.US