The Eucharist: food for us pilgrims 

Introduction
What keeps people alive and growing and healthy? For their body, it is food and drink. Yet even for their body not only food and drink are needed but also the nourishment of love and security. What do we need to keep us going as Christians? It is our trusting faith in God. That faith is kept alive and growing in us through our close relationship with Christ. He nourishes this faith and love in us with the food and drink of his word and with the strength he brings us through the Eucharist; this is our “viaticum,” our food and drink for the road of life. It gives us the courage to stand up for what is right and good. Let the Lord Jesus give us in this Eucharist the food and drink of his word and his body.

First Reading: Bread for the Road
Tired of being God’s voice to a people that does not listen, Elijah is on the verge of a breakdown. Through an angel God gives him food to march 40 days – symbolic of a life-time – to encounter God and to receive from him new strength for his mission as a prophet.

1 Reading 1 Kings 19:4-8
Elijah went a day’s journey into the desert,
until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it.
He prayed for death saying:
“This is enough, O LORD!
Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree,
but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat.
Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake
and a jug of water.
After he ate and drank, he lay down again,
but the angel of the LORD came back a second time,
touched him, and ordered,
“Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!”
He got up, ate, and drank;
then strengthened by that food,
he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.

Responsorial Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
R. (9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Glorify the LORD with me,
Let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
And delivered me from all my fears.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Look to him that you may be radiant with joy.
And your faces may not blush with shame.
When the afflicted man called out, the LORD heard,
And from all his distress he saved him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him and delivers them.
Taste and see how good the LORD is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Second Reading: Follow the Way of Love of Christ
A Christian must be loving and forgiving, like Christ, who sacrificed himself for us. In the Eucharist he can give us the strength to follow him.

2 Reading Ephesians 4:30—5:2
Brothers and sisters:
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,
with which you were sealed for the day of redemption.
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.

So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love,
as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us
as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.

Alleluia John 6:51
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord;
whoever eats this bread will live forever.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Bread for the Life of the World
As we need bread or food to live, so we also need bread for eternal life. Jesus is that bread for the life of the world.

Gospel John 6:41-51
The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said,
“I am the bread that came down from heaven, ”
and they said,
“Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?
Do we not know his father and mother?
Then how can he say,
‘I have come down from heaven’?”
Jesus answered and said to them,
“Stop murmuring among yourselves.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,
and I will raise him on the last day.
It is written in the prophets:
They shall all be taught by God.
Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God;
he has seen the Father.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes has eternal life.
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.”

Commentary
Elijah went a day’s journey into the desert, sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said, “take my life….” Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. Anyone reading that story (the first reading of today’s Mass) will know that it is not just a story about one man or a particular day; it is a story of dejection with life, a world-weariness that afflicts us all at times. An angel touched Elijah and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you!” Strengthened by that food he travelled for forty days and forty nights until he reached the mountain of God. This ancient story is recalled in today’s Liturgy because it reminds us of the Eucharist. The spiritual food that the commercial world gives you for the journey will not sustain you, it will not take you to the mountain of God. The world sees you as a sedentary consumer, a kind of earthworm really. It encumbers and hits you, like a magic bullet, with its irresistible, ubiquitous and noisy advertisements. Thus, it cares ONLY for your money, and not for you at all. In its eyes you are going nowhere. But Jesus is moving you to the high mountain fed with his body and blood where you’ll encounter God in eternity. Are you ready stand, eat and move?

Blessing
The bread of life that we have eaten
commits us to one another.
If we are one with the Lord,
we must also be one with each other.
If he committed himself to us
at the cost of his life,
we must live for one another
and see to it that among us
no person is trampled underfoot.
We can carry out this assignment in life
with the blessing of almighty God,
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.

Let us go with the strength of Christ
and sustain one another.
R/ Thanks be to God.