19th Sunday 2024
1 Kings 19:4-8; Ephesians 4:30-5:2; John 6:41-51
Today’s Second Reading provides an important charter of “don’ts”. It would be a useful examination of conscience for each of us to ask ourselves “Do I ever bear grudges, lose my temper, raise my voice, indulge in name calling, or allow any kind of spitefulness?” Perhaps I should end the homily here and allow five minutes for silent self-examination.
I am not going to do that however: there is too much important material in the First Reading and Gospel. In the latter, we are drawn more deeply into the Bread of Life discourse, which will reach its climax next Sunday.
Today, Our Lord expands on His call to us to come to Him, by declaring that this can be achieved only by our being drawn by the Father. The initiative is not ours; it comes from God, and so we must be open to God, allowing Him to draw us ever closer to Christ. Openness, responsiveness, are key; without them we will fail to recognise and to respond to that drawing which brings us to Christ.
Jesus goes on to make the remarkable claim that “Everybody who believes HAS eternal life”. Notice the tense: not “will have” but “has”. If we allow God to draw us, if we let ourselves be drawn to Christ, then we are already living in eternity: we are already sharing in embryo in the enjoyment of life in God, no matter what difficulties or weaknesses may assail us.
At this point Jesus repeats His assertion “I am the Bread of Life”, one of those “I am” statements by which He identifies Himself with the God of the burning bush, whose declaration to Moses was “I am who am”. Jesus is that God, and He will give Himself to be eaten as bread. Thus we are drawn (to use that word again) into a Eucharistic understanding, one which will be made clearer in next week’s Gospel passage.
This is the heart of today’s Liturgy of the Word, but it will be helpful to consider Elijah as well. He is given bread which will sustain him on his journey, and we can see this as a prelude to the life-giving bread, Jesus Himself, whom we shall receive to sustain us on our journey through life.
For me, though, this passage has a special resonance, which I have mentioned before, and which I have no hesitation in, and make no apology for, mentioning again, because it is a subject which is dear to my heart. To me, this episode presents a clear example of clinical depression, and offers some pointers towards dealing with it.
We are told first that Elijah went into the wilderness. A wilderness is a place where we are not at home, where we wander helplessly, with no direction markers; an accurate description of the depressive’s condition. “Sitting under a furze bush” we are told “he wished he were dead”.
Spot on! You don’t so much want to die, as to wish, with every fibre of your being, that you had never been born. Your only desire is for non-existence, to be without consciousness or feeling, and the only respite comes in sleep. Gerard Manley Hopkins, the great nineteenth century Jesuit poet, himself a prey to depression, wrote “all life death does end, and each day dies with sleep”.
There is a problem, however: at some point you will wake up, and realise, to your horror, that consciousness has returned. Here, for Elijah, an angel intervenes. Anyone in that situation needs an angel, someone who will simply be there, offering what is needed, but not forcing the issue. Elijah’s angel encourages him to eat and drink, encouragement which may well be necessary, and proves to be a wise angel, in recognising that Elijah is not yet ready to move on. So s/he allows him to lie down again, not chivvying him, but realising his need.
Only when the time is right, does the angel wake Elijah again. Notice that the angel touches him, a gentle touch, a touch of encouragement, which enables him to take the next step, to resume his journey, a long journey, probably through a dark tunnel which appears endless until a pinpoint of light appears.
Our journey too may be through a long dark tunnel, but despite appearances, it is a tunnel which has an end, from which we will eventually emerge. During that journey, we may need the support of at least one wise angel, and sometimes we may have to be prompted to eat. Never forget that Jesus too is making the journey with us; that our suffering is a sharing in His, and so is helping to redeem the world; that the more often, on our journey, we are able to eat the Bread of Life, the better.
