Homily from Sunday August 08th -19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Growing up as a Kid:
When I was about 7 or 8 I remember some of my friends came to take me to their church called the Gospel Hall. They told me that when we leave we get a free chocolate bar. This was during the week and not on Sunday.
So I went a couple of times and one time I missed and the next time a bigger guy came to pick me up. I couldn’t go because I had a nose bleed. I went to the door to tell him I couldn’t go because of a nose bleed so he insisted I go and I insisted I wasn’t going. So he got mad and punched me in the nose which made my nose bleed more. (This reminded me of the 1st reading with Elijah because the older guy reminded me of being a prophet and prophets are very convincing)
Later I found out that this older guy was only interested in bringing me because the more kids he brought to the church the more chocolate he got.
If your business had failed and the tax people are after you for an audit – you might begin to appreciate the feelings of Elijah-from the 1st reading.
His business was that of a prophet and his efforts to turn people back to Yahweh had gotten nowhere – because Queen Jezebel had put a contract out on him, as we would say today, she wanted him eliminated.
So his work is undone and his life is threatened. In his despair, his wish to die was not unlike Job, that famous figure of misery.
Despair is not the opposite of hope – but rather the absence of hope. Elijah’s despair has a modern ring to it. It is the kind of despair we feel when the work we have been called to do – goes wrong in some way. It doesn’t matter any longer what we do, nothing will go right. Afraid and desperate, Elijah flees into the desert – a place of solitude, loneliness and despair. We know this feeling also.
How often, when things are going badly, do we try to get away from them: But in this story God comes in the form of an angel and awakens him and makes him eat; because God has a plan for him. The bread that was given to Elijah was no ordinary bread, it gives Elijah extraordinary strength and hope; to go and do the work that God gives him.
And this is the no ordinary bread that Jesus declares in the gospel today. The bread that is given to us in this gospel today is the kind of no ordinary bread that gives us the source of strength that enables us to face life head on and to handle life – whatever it may bring. Jesus tells us that he is that kind of bread. This is a most extraordinary bread indeed.
When we bring our despair to the Eucharist, we experience the strength, courage and hope to carry on. But only if we are believers and truly searching for Christ can the Eucharist open our eyes, minds and hearts so that we can recognize God when he comes to us. God can come to us in the Eucharist as he came to Elijah, with more work. This is not a time for despair, God will tell us: I have things for you to do. It matters little that we, like Elijah will not get to all those things – but it is the hope that feeds us that we feast on and why we celebrate the Eucharist.
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