Pro-life
Preaching Hints
August 9 – 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
1 Kgs 19:4-8
Eph 4:30 - 5:2
Jn 6:41-51
Elijah was fed on his journey to Horeb; the Israelites were
fed on their journey to the Promised Land; we are fed on our
journey to Heaven. In all three cases, God does the feeding. We
also see that in all three cases, God’s children complain when
they face the struggles of the journey. The greatest temptation
is to fail to trust God – and a failure to trust is what often
leads to the devastating results we see in the Culture of Death.
In their desert journey (see Exodus 15-17), the sin of the
Israelites was to grumble in distrust. Their lack of trust, in
fact, was the reason they had to wander for forty years instead
of going directly on a journey that could have only taken a few
weeks. Even when God fed them with manna, they continued to
grumble, getting tired of the same food every day. Some even
wanted to go back to Egypt. Slavery seemed less challenging. At
least they knew what to expect.
The Gospel passage from John 6 is like a replay of that
desert grumbling. “The Jews murmured about Jesus,” John says –
just like they had murmured about the manna. We grumble too
about the difficulties of the journey, which is why Paul has to
give the Ephesians the admonitions he gives in today’s second
reading.
But Paul also gives the answer: “Be imitators of God…Live in
love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a
sacrificial offering…” The Gospel passage shows how Christ hands
himself over to us – in the flesh, on the cross, in the Lord’s
Supper – that we may have life.
The Lord’s self-giving teaches us how to live. Christ the
Bread of Life gives us strength for a journey in which we are
called to give ourselves away. Some grumble about having to
sacrifice, but we see sacrifice as a life-giving gift. Some
grumble because things get in the way of their plans for life.
But God commanded the Israelites to gather only the manna they
needed for the day, and we pray for God to give us “our daily
bread.” God is already in our future; yes, we must plan certain
things, but we must trust for even more. The more we trust, and
the more we sacrifice, the more we will give life, and the less
we will grumble.
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