"I sought the Lord; he answered me and delivered me from all my fears." Psalm 33 expresses the spirit of Elijah after the trial of discouragement. He had hundreds of prophets of Baal killed, defeated in the trial by fire on Mount Carmel, applying the Torah that condemned idolaters to death. But Queen Jezebel lets him know that she wants the same end for him. He flees and is assaulted by fear and the weariness of living. "Enough, Lord, take away my life." her gaze depresses him: "I'm no better than my parents."
But God did not ask him to be better, nor to judge himself, but to allow himself to be fed by him. The bread baked on stones that the angel gives him is a foretaste of the Eucharist. It gives him strength to walk forty days and forty nights to Mount Horeb. It is Mount Sinai, where the people of Israel has its roots, where Elijah rejuvenates his vocation.
Elijah had a crisis of faith and the Ephesians live the crisis in the life of Christ that they have received: Paul exhorts them to not "grieve the Holy Spirit" and to make disappear "from them all bitterness, wrath, indignation, shouting, and slander, with all manner of malice."and be "imitators of God" y "be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God forgave you in Christ.".
Introduced by these two examples of crisis, we come to the murmur of the Jews who do not believe that Jesus can be the "bread from heaven"; for them his humanity is an obstacle to understanding his divine nature. They say that he is "the son of Joseph"The reality contrasts with the conviction that the Messiah must come down from heaven without any earthly genealogy. Joseph and Mary are the witnesses that Jesus is the Son of God. But it is not the time to reveal the mystery of his birth.
Jesus urges them: "Do not murmur among yourselves.". This verb refers to the murmuring of his parents in the desert against Moses. At the same time, by removing their guilt, he reveals to them that only with the attraction that the Father gives them can they go to him in faith. In spite of their obstinacy, Jesus proceeds to reveal himself as "the bread of life" y "the living bread which came down from heaven", allowing the Father to grant them their freedom to be attracted to him. "If anyone eats this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." In the Semitic language, the word "meat" means the whole living person. By eating it, we get all of Jesus Christ and all of his life: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me".. By eating the bread that gives life, Jesus helps us to overcome the discouragement and fear of Elijah, the difficulties and vices of the Ephesians and the unbelief of the Jews.
The homily on the readings of Sunday 19th Sunday
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaa small one-minute reflection for these readings.
