WHEN MAN REJECTS GOD.

NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME. YEAR B
August 13, 2006
(1 Kings 19:4-8) (Ephesians 4:30-5:2) (John 6:41-51)

WHEN MAN REJECTS GOD.

The voice of man turns into a murmur whenever he rejects God. It is not possible to reject God in a loud, sincere voice. The gospel this Sunday tells us: "The Jews murmured about Jesus" ( Juan 6:41) because Jesus described himself as "the bread that came down from heaven", the living God that came down from heaven. That was unacceptable for the people who were murmuring: "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?'". They felt it was necessary for them to reject God.

Human history shows us that it is not uncommon for man to reject God. Man does not want to accept God because it is more convenient for him to fabricate his own gods(1), those gods that can be used to serve man's own selfish designs.

Let us explain this with the following example: Powerful individuals or dominant interest groups, in their efforts to perpetuate social and economic inequality, do not hesitate to create their own gods while, at the same time, try to present themselves as "good" Christians.

By such actions, these individuals or groups are rejecting the true God and acting in the name of their own base interests, in the name of the gods they create and use for their own benefit, namely, the god of political power, the god of profit, the god of military power, the god of war, the god of world domination. These individuals or groups go about saying "God bless us", when in fact their words and actions are far removed from God.

Jesus proclaims in this gospel that He is the only True God, the Bread of Life, the only Bread that we need "to eat" in order for us not to die (the same way that the true God never dies). Whereas those who "eat" what the man-made gods offer, will die.

In the First Book of Kings (First reading) Elijah is cognizant of the fact that, up to that point in his life, he had been fed with the bread offered by the man-made gods. As Elijah finds himself distant from God, he says: "This is enough, O Lord! Take my life for I am no better than my ancestors" (1 Kings 19:4). Then the bread that the Lord gives Elijah, a prefiguration of Jesus - the Bread of Life - revitalizes the prophet who thus is able to walk for "forty days and forty nights" (1 Kings 19:8).

We, human beings of this day and age, like Elijah, need to receive the Bread of Life or else "the journey will be too long" for us. If we continue to eat the bread of the man-made gods, 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?
Saint Paul in his Letter to the Ephesians (Second reading) gives us an explanation of how we "eat" the Bread of Life: By being "kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven us in Christ" and by 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 able to be like Jesus. We initiate this process by imitating Him until we become one with God, just like Jesus is one with the Father.

The imitation of Christ leads us to the unity among all human beings which in turn leads humankind to the unity with Christ. However, as we see the realities of our present world, we come to the realization that our world rejects the unity in Christ, because the individuals or groups who control the world appear to be satisfied and comfortable with the man-made gods they have created for themselves.

Today, let us strive after the Bread of Life, after unity with all our fellow human beings, after unity with Christ; let us demonstrate that we do not want to reject God.
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Footnotes.
(1) History shows us that Greek and Roman civilizations created their own man-made gods who had "authority" over specific areas of society. For instance, the god of war, Mars, was used by the Roman rulers to instill a sense of divinity into their imperialist wars and expansionism, to destroy and conquer other peoples by mandate of the god. The god of commerce and economy, Mercury, served the Romans to give a tint of divinity to and justify their predatory practices of dispossessing others of their means of subsistence. The god of eroticism, Venus, was used by the Romans as a means to grant divine approval to licentious erotic practices. By the same token, all other gods in the Roman religion were designed by the Roman rulers for the purposes of serving the needs of their society.
It was precisely in the midst of this society that the Christians of the early Roman Church preached and lived the faith of unity in Jesus, the unity among all human beings, and the rejection of all man-made gods. This radical approach was seen by the Roman rules as a dangerous and detrimental subversion against Roman civilization. A centuries-long, merciless persecution of Christians by the Romans ensued.