1 Kgs. 19:4-8; Ps. 34:2-9; Eph. 4:30—5:2; Jn. 6:41-51

Jesus confirms today he is the living bread from heaven.  The past few weeks the gospel readings are building up to understand Jesus’ teaching on who he is.   We have heard him say “I am the bread of life”.  While many Christian denominations take his teaching to imply that scripture is the word that is the bread of life, today he makes it clear that he is the living bread he gives and it is his “flesh for the life of the world”.  He gave his flesh on the cross of cavalry to save us and he does it today in the Holy sacrifice of the Mass.  This flesh we can only receive by coming to receive him in the Eucharist.  End of story or should we say the beginning of eternal life. 

Jesus reminds us about the manna the Israelites ate in the desert like “flakes” and they died but the living bread today we receive is a host that resembles a flake “so that one may eat it and not die.”  Not only does Jesus offer us himself as the living bread but he also fulfills the prophesy “They shall all be taught by God” because he is God the Son of the Father in heaven.  The people see only “Jesus the son of Joseph” and they are filled with “bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling the son of God.  They see with the eyes of humanity without faith and cannot believe. 

Unless we come to Jesus, the living bread for healing of our sins, our weaknesses, our concupiscence, and our attachments to this world we cannot “taste and see the goodness of the Lord”.  In the words of an old cliché “oil and water don’t mix”.  In the freedom to choose we cannot have both the desires of the flesh and the goodness of the Lord.  This is not to say we cannot have good things in this world.  Good things are a blessing to serve our needs that we may fulfill a higher purpose in our lives.  They are a means to climbing our own mountain of Horeb as we see in Elijah. 

After only one day’s journey into the desert, Elijah was ready to quit praying “This is enough, O Lord!”.  Without God he would have never made it but he prayed and God answered him.  So often we encounter our own hardship in life and in our weakness want to give up or we do give up without calling on God’s help and mercy.  Elijah was beyond his human capacity to live and ready to die until an angel touched him.  Death was not God’s purpose for Elijah who we also encounter in the Transfiguration of the Lord next to Jesus.  By trusting in God, Elijah fulfilled his destiny.  Elijah surrendered to God and there began his victory over death.  Have we surrendered to the will of God in our lives? 

Elijah was rescued by the angel of God who provided for him the food and drink to strengthen his resolve and continue on his journey to serve God’s purpose.  There used to be a very popular television series called “Touched by an Angel” in the 1990’s.  The core of each episode was to bring “guidance and messages from God to various people who are at a crossroads in their lives” (Wikipedia).  In the television world this was a genre of fantasy and drama but in God’s world Elijah was touched by a real angel and messenger from God.  We also can be touched by an angel who watches over us.   We belong by our baptism to the communion of saints and angels when we choose God in our lives and live for a higher purpose. 

God is calling us each by name and he has a mountain for us to climb.  We were born for a greater purpose just like the many lives we read in the scriptures who lived and died not knowing how their lives added to the history of salvation.  It is our turn now to do our part, to answer the call. 

What is our mountain today?  It may be to be a voice and bring comfort to the suffering or a word of Godly truth to someone who needs to her it and is on the wrong path; it may be at act of charity to feed his sheep or persevering during difficult times as God fashions us to be more into his image.  It may be a steady stream of challenges or one huge event that transforms our lives.  To each God provides both the call and the living bread.  Jesus gives himself to us today.  Are we ready to give ourselves to him?