19 Ordinary: August 10/11, 2024

Listen up as I am going to make a public confession – something that doesn’t happen very often.
It is something that started a long time ago and I have to admit to this day – I haven’t been able to shake it.
 It started around our dining room table at home – this proclivity of mine:
    As a child, no matter how full at dinner I got by eating my mom’s roast and potatoes, or my grandmother’s chicken and dumplings – even if I had already left the table – when the call came for dessert – somehow – I wasn’t quite as stuffed as I thought I was.  That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.
    Today, no matter how sated my appetite gets – there is always room for cookies, or cake, or pie, or ice cream.  My father used to say it was “filling in the cracks.”
    The prophet Elijah had a similar problem  — in the First Book of Kings – we read of a very full and stuffed Elijah. . .
    He’s been on the run from Queen Jezebel, after tangling with some of her prophets.  He’d been trying to do what God was asking of him – but things weren’t really going all that well.
    And he was full - stuffed - but by all the wrong things:  He was full of exhaustion.  Full of disappointment.  Full of disillusionment.  Full of despair.  Full of fear and confusion and loneliness.
    And he had enough – he was at the end of his rope, no longer able to take any more bites of what life was offering.  
      And so he plops down and prays for death. . .
    Can we relate?  Each disappointment, each time of sorrow, each experience of futility, loneliness, or betrayal that we have – seems to squeeze just a little more of life out of  us – seems to crowd out the best part of ourselves – taking away our hope and our peace and our joy.
    We try to keep all the balls of our lives  juggled – but sometimes things become too much – and all that seems to remain are the things we never wanted in the first place – and we are full –.....  by all the wrong things. . .
    But just as with Elijah, and just like me with my sweet tooth  so, too, with all of us –– we can find that there is always more room.

    As the story of Elijah recounts, an angel of the Lord wakes Elijah up.  And in front him, in the middle of nowhere – he sees some food and water.
    And he takes and eats,  takes and drinks from what the Lord provided. . .
    A few minutes before – he was done with life.  And now he is choosing life by choosing to accept what God is offering.  
    And clearly it just wasn’t his body that was being nourished.  His soul and his mind and his whole being was been nourished as well.
    As full as Elijah was – there was still room for THE most important thing he needed – God’s presence in his life.

    “I am the bread of life.”
Jesus proclaims – in a phrase that confused some, and turned others off – because they did not have the perspective we do – of casting that phrase in terms of the Eucharist we share and consume.
Without that perspective –  it would be hard FOR US  to wrap our minds and hearts around it – which is why in this section of St. John’s Gospel – Jesus says it over and over again:  I am the bread of life. . .
    So what does Jesus mean when he says he is bread – and what does he mean when he says he is life?
    I will leave the first question until next week as we continue reading from John’s Gospel – and tackle the second today. . .
    What is this LIFE Jesus wants for us??
It’s a life in which hope takes the place of pessimism.
    It’s a life where joy takes the place of despair.
    Where generosity takes the place of selfishness.
    Compassion takes the place of judgment and condemnation.
    Kindness takes the place of cruelty and abuse.
    Forgiveness takes the place of vengeance.
    In short, it’s a life lived in love, as St. Paul tells us.
    In other words, it’s the only kind of life God wants for us and is constantly offering us.
    And it doesn’t matter whether we have had an easy life or a difficult one – whether or not we have escaped major disappointments or have had them come our way at every corner.
    Those things should not and cannot rob us of our hope and our peace and our joy.
    They should not and cannot squeeze out the best possibilities within us.
    And it’s all possible because there is always room for God.  And God showers down blessings upon us  — abundantly –
    Remember this whole passage of John, Chapter 5 — began with just two fish and 5 loaves — and there were 12 baskets left over. . .
God is a God of abundance – and God is a God of generosity —- and there is always room for God, nobody how filled up we think we are with everything else life can throw at us.

    
    

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