Some Carbs are God

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reflection:

The background of the first reading from the First Book of Kings is actually a great segue (I had never seen this word in print before although I had heard it in common usage. It is pronounced seg-way and actually is defined as performance direction. I had a heck of a time finding the spelling.) to yesterday’s main topic about violating the second commandment. Elijah was under the broom tree because he was “on the run”.

He had just finished a miraculous episode that converted or re-converted a large group to have faith in God the Father. When he had finished, he had the priests of Baal brought to him and he slit their throats (that Old Testament justice is really brutal). Jezebel was the ruler of Beer-sheba which was apparently a big Baal hot bed and she sent word that Elijah was going to get what he gave those priests of Baal. That is why he was on the run. He was trying to save the people from the trap of false gods.

The reason Elijah was under the broom tree, however, is secondary to the image we have of what happened there. We can tell the prophet is very upset (he was afraid his throat was going to be slit) and goes so far as to ask God to just end it (“This is enough, O Lord! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”). But the Lord has bigger and better things in store for Elijah. God sent his own messenger to give him food for his journey and to make sure he understood that he did not give up.

While we see from our perch more than 2,500 years in his future (the 1st Book of Kings is thought to have been written between 561 BC and 538 BC) that this story is Eucharistic in its reference, it might not have appeared to have had that meaning at the time. But if we include the sound bite from Psalm 34 (“Taste and see how good the Lord is; blessed the man who takes refuge in him.”) (Tradition has it that the Psalms were, for the most part composed around the time of King David, about 1, 000 BC, well before 1st Kings, although not actually written down until about 600 BC) the link between Elijah and Jesus’ gift of His own Body and Blood in the Eucharist becomes substantial. Not only that but it is back linked (excuse the internet terminology) by the Feast of the Transfiguration we celebrated just a week ago.

So here is the big surprise; today’s scripture is about the Eucharist. Wait a minute, what about that second reading from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians? Paul is always practical and as we read this piece of his letter to the Church at Ephesus we see that practical advice;

All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you,
along with all malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate,
forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.

This does not sound Eucharistic so are we out of step with the rest of scripture? No, look at the end of the passage; “…Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.” There is our reference, so we are consistently told of the perpetual nature of Christ’s sacrifice from before all time. His New Covenant was made clear in his sacrifice on the Cross but was foretold many times in the history of man’s encounters with God. From the time God brought the Hebrew people out of their slavery in Egypt, when he gave them manna in the desert, to when Jesus fed the multitudes with loaves and fishes we were told this timeless gift was to be given.

John’s Gospel, of course, takes away any ambiguity. There is no longer a need for symbolism or implication, Jesus is crystal clear;

I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven
so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give is my flesh
for the life of the world.

If one believes that Jesus is the only Son of the Living God; if one believes that, at the Last Supper, he gave his disciples bread and wine and told them; “This is my body”, and “This is my blood.”; if one believes that the Bible is the revealed word of God, how can we deny that, in the Eucharist we receive today, Christ has once more given us His body, real food, and His blood, real drink?

I know there are some who argue that he was speaking metaphorically. How can they say that in light of the scripture we hear today? How can we not believe that he left this gift with his disciples and that they in turn passed on that gift through Peter down that long path of apostolic succession, 2000 years, to this altar on this day?

Today we thank God for the gift of His Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ who gave us the gift of His Body and Blood that He might be in us and we in Him and share with Him the salvation He won in His sacrifice on the Cross. Pax