19th Sunday

How often have we been discouraged on our  journey of discipleship and Christian life?  How often have we wanted to say like Elijah “This is enough O’ Lord”  If you are like me – a lot.

For the last two Sundays we have heard Jesus describe himself as the Bread of life.

“ I am the bread of life”,  “I am the living bread that comes down from heaven”

“the bread I will give is my flesh for the life of the world”,  ”whoever eats this bread will life forever”

From last week’s Gospel we heard that those who were moved by these words asked Jesus.

"What can we do to accomplish the works of God?" or to continue  the bread metaphor -  we who est these bread what can we do?

Jesus answered -

"This is the work of God that you believe in the one he sent."   This seems straight forward & rather easy.

But, believing in the one who was sent is more than to acknowledge, or accept or to understand.  It is to incorporate into, make it’s one’s own, ( to digest it ) to live it.  Believing is active and starts everything in motion.  

In other words - To believe is to become.

Paul gives us a picture of what becoming looks like  -

All bitterness, fury, anger must be removed from you . . .  be kind to one another,
 compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.
 be imitators of God  and live in love.

So to believe is not only the process of becoming, it is to imitate God. 

To imitate is to mimic.  It is pretending to be something other than what we are.

 We can be poor imitators or good imitators, or perfect imitators but we can never be what we imitate. This not a bad thing, it is a very human thing.  It is our proper relationship - God is God and we are not.

We cannot be God, but we do share in God’s life through Jesus. 

In eating his flesh and drinking his blood and we are made sharers in God’s life.  And because each one of us shares this divine life, individually but not separately, we also share in each other’s life.  

Not to be too dramatic, but we are co-mingled in the body & blood of Our Lord.

This is the bread of life broken open to reveal who Jesus is and who we are –

Jesus is eternal life and we are believers – becomers - and sharers.

 

As believers we reach out to grasp what can never be fully grasped.  As imitators we imitate what we can never fully be.  But, in grasping and imitating we become closer, more conformed, to what we grasp and imitate - Jesus.  

Paul has said become perfect as your Father is perfect.  Like Paul, we are not perfect, but we can live in the state of becoming perfect, the movement away from sin and growth towards holiness.

Becoming is a process not a goal. It is a commitment to ongoing change and a striving towards something better .  It is a mysterious, but not an uncharted journey.  

As believers and becomers and sharers we journey together towards the horizon, where the Kingdom shines brightly and to God who stands outside our vision.

Jesus says very plainly

“Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God;

he has seen the Father.”  He goes on - “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.”

Jesus is the way to God, but it is God who draws us to Jesus.

We are creatures of God, our life is a part of His ongoing creation.   We forget, (for a lot of reasons) that we are in his hands every minute of every day. God draws us out of ourselves. Through the Holy Spirit, He calls us back into His love by drawing us nearer and nearer to His son, until we find ourselves, to our surprise, or our shame, or our guilt, or our Joy – face to face with Jesus. 

Whatever shape our encounter with Jesus takes (in Word – Eucharist – or Person) it always points beyond.  The encounter is not the end.  Conversion is not the end.  Sharing in the Bread of life is not the end.  Jesus is not the end, but the beginning. Jesus always points to the Father and says, “Come, follow me”

When we hear his word and break his bread we share in his life death & resurrection and his ongoing life in the Holy Spirit.  There is nothing held back from us.

We share everything with God, through Jesus, and we literally share in this divine life with each other.  Through the Spirit, in Word and Eucharist, we become mutually indwelling and in unceasing communion.  The words one bread, one body are literally true. 

As believers, becomers and sharers in one bread one body, we need to act as such.

"What can we do to accomplish the works of God?"  What can we do who eat this bread of life?

 Paul helps us here.  Among a list of things first comes “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.”

To grieve the Holy Spirit is hard to do.  The Spirit is compassion, tough as nails and understanding of the human condition. We grieve the Holy Spirit only in the despair of giving up. Giving up believing in Jesus, giving up becoming like Jesus, giving up sharing in the life of Jesus and the common life we hold dear. But you & I will never grieve the Holy Spirit.  Disappoint- for sure, I know I do, but we will never grieve, because you and I are always renewed and refreshed, strengthened and sustained.

"I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst "

When we find ourselves in the wilderness or desert, tired, drained and burdened we will echo the words of Elijah – “This is enough, O, Lord” And like Elijah, we will hear the voice of the one who was sent inviting us to share his shade, his table, his food and drink.  We will know the voice who says to us -

“Get up and eat (this bread of life), else the journey will be too long for you”

†