REFLECTION NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME…AUGUST 11, 2024

by Judith Moe McCallum, Notre Dame Associate

FIRST KINGS 19:4-8; RESPONSORIAL PSALM 34:2-9; EPHESIANS 4:30: 5-2; ALLELUIA JOHN 6:51; GOSPEL JOHN: 6-41-51

KINGS:

Elijah went a day’s journey into the desert…tired and forlorn he prayed to God for death and lay down to sleep. An angel of the Lord touched his shoulder and commanded him to eat the hearth cake and drink of the jug of water laid before him, else Elija’s journey would be too long for him.

EPHESIANS:

“All bitterness fury, anger, shouting…and malice must be removed from you…And be kind to one another, compassionate and forgiving of one another as God has forgiven you through Christ.”

In this way we are commanded by God to daily nourish our bodies through wholesome “bread” and life-giving water. To nourish our souls by continually doing the work of letting go of our all too human propensity toward resentments, anger, judgement, arrogance and unkind ways.

As our bodies and souls are daily nourished, we will be refreshed, and it will follow that we, too, will be given the strength to go forth on our life’s journey with compassion, kindness, and love. In God’s name.

Taste and see that God is good. (Psalm 8)

I am the bread of Life. (The GOSPEL OF JOHN)