GOD IS GETTING TOO CLOSE.

NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME. YEAR B
August 9, 2009
(1 Kings 19:4-8) (Ephesians 4:30-5:2) (John 6:41-51)


GOD IS GETTING
TOO CLOSE.

Whenever God gets too close to man, the latter becomes uncomfortable, very uncomfortable. Why? Because man is already close to many ungodly things.

The gospel today speaks of how close to man God wants to be: God becomes the "food" for man to eat.

To eat God means to give up the "food" the world is eating now: the food of worldly power, of profit, of war, of licentiousness.

In the First Book of Kings, Elijah, who for most of his life, had eaten the foods of the world says: "This is enough, O Lord! Take my life for I am no better than my ancestors" (1 Kings 19:4). Then the Lord gives Elijah the Bread of Life with which the prophet is able to walk for "forty days and forty nights" (1 Kings 19:8).

Without the Bread of Life "the journey will be too long" for us. If we continue to eat the man-made foods, will be doomed to say with Elijah that we are "no better than those who preceded us".

What does "eating the Bread of Life" mean?
To Saint Paul "eating" the Bread of Life means living in a certain way: Being "kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven us in Christ" and getting "rid of all bitterness, all passion and anger, harsh words, slander, and malice of every kind" (Ephesians 4:31-32).

The reason for us to eat the Bread of Life is so that we may be close to Jesus, to be like Jesus.