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, saying: “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. Elijah 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.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM
Psalm 34:2–3, 4–5, 6–7, 8–9 (9a)
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall be ever in my mouth. Let my soul glory in the LORD; the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Glorify the LORD with me, let us together extol his name. I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy, and your faces may not blush with shame. When the afflicted man called out, the LORD heard, and from all his distress he saved him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. Taste and see how good the LORD is; blessed the man who takes refuge in him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
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.
ALLELUIA
John 6:51
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord; whoever eats this bread will live forever.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GOSPEL
John 6:41–51
The Jews murmured about Jesus 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.”
REFLECTIONS:
Do you receive the word of God with trust and submission?
A number of Jesus' contemporaries, including most of the religious authorities,
rejected his authority to speak in the name of God. They despised him because
they thought they knew who he was supposing him to be an uneducated laborer
from an out-of-the-way town called Nazareth. They regarded Mary, his mother,
and Joseph, his foster father, as ordinary people with no particular distinction
to their name. How could such a common man claim to be God's spokesman?
They were even more offended when Jesus claimed something which only God
could claim. He claimed to be the very source of life which comes from
God and which lasts forever (John 6:51). Don't we make the same mistake
when we refuse to listen to others because we think they are inferior to
us? We can miss what God may wish to speak to us through others, especially
if we despise the instrument which God chooses to work through. John states
that the Jews murmured at Jesus. They listened to him, but with a critcal
heart rather than with an open ear and an earnest desire to learn what
God wanted to speak to them through his Son Jesus. There are many different
ways that people can choose to listen to others: with an atitude of superiority,
with indifference, or with a teachable spirit that wishes to learn, grow,
and be transformed. How do you listen to God's word?
God offers his people abundant life, but we can miss it. What is the
bread of life which Jesus offers? It is first of all the life of
God himself life which sustains us not only now in this present age but
also in the age to come. The Rabbis said that the generation in the
wilderness have no part in the life to come. In the Book of Numbers
it is recorded that the people who refused to brave the dangers of the
promised land were condemned to wander in the wilderness until they died.
The Rabbis believed that the father who missed the promised land also missed
the life to come. When Jesus offers us real life he brings us into a new
relationship with God, a relationship of trust, love, and obedience. And
he offers us real, abundant, sustaining life which last forever
a life of enduring love, fellowship, communion, and union with the One
who made us in love to be united with him forever. To refuse Jesus is to
refuse eternal life, unending life with the Heavenly Father. To accept
Jesus as the bread of heaven is not only life and spiritual nourishment
for this world but glory in the world to come. Do you accept the Lord Jesus
as the bread of life?
"Lord Jesus, you are the living bread which sustains me in this
life and for all eternity as well. May I always hunger for the true and
sustaining bread which comes from heaven
and find in it the nourishment
and strength I need to love and serve you all the days of my life."
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