The Bread of Life
It was over two thousand years ago when Jesus first said you must eat my flesh and drink my blood. It was a hard saying then, it is a hard saying today. I wonder if we think the same way those first people did when we hear those words? How can this man give us His flesh and blood? From that first time until today, and I am sure well into the future, we will be asking the same question. How do you explain this? Do you accept this teaching with faith? There are many people who indeed say this is too hard. I cannot accept it. This evidenced by the people who have left the Catholic faith to start their church or leave all churches. They may claim to be spiritual, but really they are only formulating a god made by human hands, no more than a clay statue. They may claim they can find god in the forest, but again this is a god of their design, not the God of scriptures.
God, through His Son, gave us the words to use for consecrating bread and wine. Consecration is the act of making something holy. In the mass, we use the words of Jesus to make bread and wine His sacred and holy body and blood. God wants to be with us so much that He wants us to share in His divine life. He gives us Himself as nourishment in this life. That one day we will be with Him and in Him as He is in us as we share eternal life with Him.
It was just two weeks ago we saw of sign of Jesus feeding the multitudes with a few loaves and a couple of fish. Today we hear the story of Elijah. To remind us of what has happened, Elijah was just in the contest to see whose God would light the offering on fire. Elijah won. He perhaps went one step too far. He had the prophets executed and now the evil queen wants to kill him. Elijah has escaped to the desert but is so depressed he asks God to end his life. Instead, God sends food through an angel, not once but twice. The food he received must have been bread from heaven because Elijah would now be on the run for forty days without food. Elijah is running to Mount Horeb, which is another name for Mount Sinai. Remember, Mount Sinai is where God spoke to Moses. What better place to speak to God?
Where do we find God? We forget in our search for God, God is longing for us to turn to Him. Often, we forget that God is in our presence in many ways. We forget, you do not have to die to go to heaven. Dying is one way, but it is not the only way. Whenever we put ourselves in the presence of God we are in heaven. The most obvious way is celebrating mass. We are in the presence of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Coming to mass is coming to heaven. Another way, spending time in Adoration, we enter the presence of Christ, we enter heaven with Him. What a marvelous experience! If we accept it as so. It is hard for our human minds to stay focused during mass or adoration. We are so much like the disciples. There on mount Horeb they fell asleep. I wonder, how could you fall asleep in the presence of God? Perhaps it is not all the lightning and thunder, but in the small quiet whisper of God speaking to us we find such peace and security.
May the Lord bless you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen