| Homily
for the 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time: August 13,
2006
Given by the Most
Reverend Stephen E. Blaire at the Cathedral of the Annunciation
in Stockton.
There are days when we might feel like Elijah
– sitting down under the broom tree exhausted, perhaps
discouraged, maybe down on ourselves. “I’m no
better than my fathers.”
We live in unusually stressful times. I was
in Chicago on Wednesday for a meeting. What I carried on the
plane to Chicago was not what I could carry home.
An angel from God touched Elijah, “Get
up and eat,” the angel said, “else the journey
will be too long for you.” The journey through life
can be difficult enough, but to what purpose if we do not
look to the end of the journey – to the day of salvation,
to life forever. If the great human adventure has no lasting
purpose or eternal significance, then why sacrifice to be
generous? Why forgive those who have hurt us? Why hunger for
justice? Why visit the sick? Why be committed to peace? Why
not abort the unborn child?
“Amen, amen,” Jesus said, “whoever
believes has eternal life….I am the living bread that
came down form heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
Through faith in Christ we are “taught by God”
the realities of life and death, the meaning of our human
existence through the experience and understanding of creation
and redemption. There is nothing more real than God who created
the heavens and the earth, God the source of all that exists.
And it is this God who so loved the world He created that
He sent His own Son so that we might believe in him and have
eternal life. Even if we die, we shall live forever. Through
creation and redemption the human enterprise, the realities
of everyday living carry a significance that will only be
grasped fully in eternity.
“To keep on truckin,’” as
they say, “to walk the walk” we need food for
the journey. Jesus, the bread of life, is that food in his
teaching, because it is the teaching of God the creator, and
He is that food in the spiritual nourishment of the Eucharist
because He is present in the Eucharist as the redeemer who
promises eternal life.
“Get up,” God says, “and
eat.” Like Elijah let us get up and eat, strengthened
by the food that is Christ. With Christ, we can walk to the
mountain of God.
Last Update February 28, 2007
|
