August 8th 2021. Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL   John 6:41-51

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

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GOSPEL John 6:41-51

The Jews were complaining to each other about Jesus, because he had said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ ‘Surely this is Jesus son of Joseph’ they said. ‘We know his father and mother. How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven” ?’

Jesus said in reply, ‘Stop complaining to each other. No  one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise him up at the last day.
It is written in the prophets: They will all be taught by God, and to hear the teaching of the Father, and learn from it, is to come to me. Not that anybody has seen the Father, except the one who comes from God: he has seen the Father. I tell you most solemnly, everybody who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and they are dead, but this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a man may eat it and not die. I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.
Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give
is my flesh, for the life of the world.’

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

SHORTER HOMILY . . . On this nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary time, we find that the people are still fixated by the satisfaction of their bodily appetites, not realising that God wanted to give them something greater and more profound. In the first reading, Elijah is being persecuted by the wife of the king and he has become desperate, calling in a somewhat infantile way on the Lord to take his life. The Lord, however, gives him a food that enables him to go beyond his situation. At Mass, we often have great problems on our minds and hearts, but the Lord is saying to us, “Eat and walk onwards”. We are called to undertake a long journey in life, to go beyond where we are now. In the Gospel, the Jews are complaining because they do not understand what Jesus means when he describes himself as their bread. This will finally become clearer at the Last Supper when Jesus becomes our food, but for the moment the people do not understand. There is always something puzzling and incomprehensible in our lives. Jesus asks us explicitly in today’s Gospel not to grumble at what we find difficult. We often have a tendency to grumble, to distrust the Lord, to be attached to negative thoughts. In Eastern Orthodox spirituality, the sin of sadness is added to our seven capital sins. Sadness is an infantile and immature tendency to cultivate an attitude of grumbling and dissatisfaction. The Jews prefer not to trust in the gift the Lord is giving them because they do not understand it. Jesus, in fact, mentions the fact that the people of the Exodus ate the bread in the desert and died. The old man, the one who is too attached to grumbling and distrust, does not enter into the Promised Land. This man must be left behind if we are to enter into the life of freedom. The Jews in the desert ate the bread but didn’t enter into life. We are called to eat the bread and ENTER into life! This is a question of quality not quantity. We accept the gift the Lord is giving us, even if we do not understand it, and then we go beyond where we are now. The power of the Eucharist in our lives will be impeded if we do not enter into it with openness to go beyond our current situation. We do not eat the Eucharist just for the sake of eating but for the sake of journeying with the Lord, going beyond our mentality of sadness, to enter into freedom, joy and praise, with gratitude for all the Lord has done for us.

SUMMARY OF LONGER HOMILY . . . In the first reading Elijah is despondent because he cannot see beyond his own pessimistic perspective. In the Gospel, the Jews grumble because they cannot see beyond what they think they know of Jesus: “This is the son of Joseph. We know everything about him! How dare he claim to be bread that has come down from heaven!” In reply, Jesus asks us to look beyond what we think we know or understand. The Father is drawing us to himself. He is speaking to us in the depths of our hearts, in our everyday experiences, in our intuitions, through our consciences. By means of this internal compass, the Lord attracts us towards the divine, towards authentic life. Let us turn to him in silence. Let us open ourselves to the voice of the Holy Spirit who is moving within us, but we fail to hear him because of the distractions we pursue constantly, because of our preoccupation with satisfying our appetites. The Lord is closer to us than we realise! The Holy Spirit illuminates us, caresses us, invites us to love, opens us to the risen Christ, speaks to us of the Father and of eternity.

Elijah gives in to despair because he cannot move beyond his own perspective on things. He does not allow that God might be acting in this dire situation

On this nineteenth Sunday of the year, we continue reading the discourse of Jesus in the synagogue of Capernaum, as recounted in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of St John. The first reading introduces our theme with the story of Elijah, who is fleeing from the death threat issued by Jezebel. Elijah had just defeated 400 idolatrous priests of Canaan and was forced to escape for his life. But now he can take the persecution no more and wishes he were dead. He sits under a furze bush and says, ‘Lord, I have had enough. Take my life; 1 am no better than my ancestors.’ Even though Elijah is a powerful prophet he too goes through this moment of discouragement – moments of despair which happen to us all. There are times when we all say, “Enough, I can’t go on. I wish everything were finished”. When these things happen, we are making an absolute out of a particular perspective on a situation. Elijah sees only that he is tired and that he is being pursued. He does not see the future nor the powerful action of God. All he sees are his own tired muscles and the enemy gaining ground behind. Elijah’s only method of measuring is whether or not he is better than his ancestors. Then the angel gives him food and encourages him to go on his way. He tells the prophet that he still has a journey to undertake and that there is a road he must follow. All too often we feel anguish because we think we are at a dead end. Elijah is not at a dead end, and, in fact, he will make it all the way to the mountain of the Lord.

Things have a reality that goes beyond their exterior appearance. We ought not to judge things from their superficial characteristics but seek to discover the significance they have in God’s plan

This text is a splendid introduction to the Gospel. Jesus has just announced that he is the bread come down from heaven. The people begin to grumble: “What is he saying! This man is the son of Joseph! We know everything about him! Come down from heaven indeed!” Jesus asks them not to murmur, for the things of God do not fit in with human schemes. Divine things are not limited to the things that we already know. Jesus has a reality that is hidden from the men and women who stand before him. And this is true not only for the humanity and divinity of Jesus, but for all of reality and life. All things have a reality that goes beyond what we know of it and which takes its significance from what God has given it, according to the plan that God has ordained for it. In the Gospel, the people think they know everything and this leads them to grumble. This presumption blocks them from placing themselves in harmony with the action of God.

The Father is drawing him to himself through his action in the depths of our Spirit. This action permits us to glimpse the authentic life of God in our everyday experiences. We feel a natural attraction to the divine. God is drawing us to himself if we would only open ourselves to his action within us

The solution to this is another kind of attitude altogether. Jesus says, “No-one can come to me unless the Father draws him”. We can choose to remain entrapped inside the prisons of our own making, or we can allow ourselves to be drawn outwards by the Father. The Father is working in the depths of our heart and is drawing us to himself. In a marvellous text which reflects on this passage, St Augustine tells us that God places a desire deep in our hearts and sets us on the journey to salvation. Augustine says that if you show a sheep a handful of grass, he will follow you. If you show a child a tasty treat, he will become curious and draw closer. God does the same with us. He wishes to liberate us from the absolutism of our own mentality and our own reason, in order to begin to listen much more profoundly to the way he is moving our spirit. God is drawing us! It might seem curious to say that in this world which is so agnostic regarding profound things, a world that is fixated with practical things, with the satisfaction of our appetites, with the pursuit of entertainment. But artists in general demonstrate the attraction they feel for Jesus Christ. Soon or later they paint or sculpt a crucifix or the blessed Virgin. There is something attractive about Jesus if we would only say yes to this attraction. There is something that the Father places inside each of us which draws us to the truth and authenticity of Christ. It cannot be erased from our hearts. The nostalgia we feel for God remains in the depth of our beings. And St Augustine is not the only one of the fathers that makes this assertion. This profound knowledge of God is not simply intellectual but is an experience of a life that is hidden in everyday reality, an authentic life, a life that we glimpse through our search for what is beautiful.

The Lord is drawing us and speaking to us in our hearts. Let us turn to him in silence so that we can perceive his call, so that we can tune in to the internal compass that is leading us to God.

In this passage, Jesus says: “No-one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father, and I will raise him up on the last day”. Later he says that all will be taught by God. We must allow ourselves to receive instruction from him, allow the good to speak in the depths of our hearts. This voice points out Christ to us. This good that speaks within us is the Holy Spirit who visits us and works through our intuitions. He illuminates us, caresses us, invites us to love, opens us to the risen Christ, speaks to us of the Father and of eternity. We are now in summertime (those of us who live in the northern hemisphere!). There is more time for prayer in the summer, generally speaking. Let us listen to God’s call in moments we give to silence. Let us tune in to the call of acts that are good because they are simple and clear, gestures of reconciliation, gestures of reciprocal care, There is something that draws us in the depths of our souls and leads us to the Father, that internal compass that every human being (thanks to the grace of God) possesses inside.