A Homily – The Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Exodus 16:2-4,12-15

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 77(78):3-4,23-25,54

Second Reading – Ephesians 4:17,20-24

Gospel Acclamation – John 14:6

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 4:4

The Gospel According to John 6:24-35 ©

 

(NJB)              

 

Listen!

God did not feed the Israelites in the desert, they gathered its natural fodder, and called it a miracle. This mana in the desert was received as a miracle, and consumed in a spirit of thanksgiving, but it was not a supernatural event.

Insisting that the myths of our ancestors represent a historical record of fundamental truths does not make them so. Our insistence does not turn allegories into actualities, or even present these metaphors as something suitable for modern theology, or philosophical exploration…we must handle them with care.

God, the creator of the universe, never intervened in the lives of people in the ways that are recorded in the Book of Exodus, or the Psalms; God is not a magician, or a miracle maker. The creator made us and the entire universe in a state of radical freedom, free from all forms of divine coercions; God does not reach into the world to change the fate of nations.

Consider the wisdom of the apostle who encourages us to enter into the life of God and be renewed. Share in the divine providence, in God’s abundance; cast off your old ways of greed, envy, fear and despair. Share abundantly and without reservation, even in times of scarcity.

Live as Jesus lived, he showed us the way to lead a truthful life, and dedicate yourself to the good of all God’s children…which means everyone.

If we live merely to eat, we are no different than the beasts of field and forest, following our noses and the hunger in our bellies, ruled by thirst and the vicissitudes of desire.

We can be more than that, we were made to be more than that, to look beyond ourselves, to be drawn out of ourselves, to see in our neighbors another-self and the divine spark that unites us spiritually.

We may be transcendent by following the way.

Consider the Gospel reading for today.

God is the author of all life, not each and every instance of pro-generation, but of the entirety of life’s potential fulfilled in each and every case. We do not come into life by believing in it, we come into life through the crucible of birth.

We were made not just for life in this world, but for life everlasting. We do not acquire everlasting life through the power of our belief, or any power of our own, but through grace, which we are endowed…it is a gift that comes directly from the divine.

Jesus calls us to have faith in this proposition, and by our faith to free ourselves from our present fears. In this way we are able to love one another, to care for our sisters and brothers, even the stranger among us; a just society is not possible without it.

Know this.

Jesus does not call on us to believe in his name, the title that were given him after his death, or the supernatural powers that were attributed to him in the generations that followed.

Jesus calls on us to believe in God’s plan for creation, to believe that the world is good, and that justice and mercy are possible to the extent that we act in accordance with those beliefs…this faith is the bread of life.

First Reading – Exodus 16:2-4,12-15

The Lord Sends Manna from Heaven

The whole community of the sons of Israel began to complain against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness and said to them, ‘Why did we not die at the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we were able to sit down to pans of meat and could eat bread to our heart’s content! As it is, you have brought us to this wilderness to starve this whole company to death!’

  Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Now I will rain down bread for you from the heavens. Each day the people are to go out and gather the day’s portion; I propose to test them in this way to see whether they will follow my law or not.

  ‘I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel. Say this to them, “Between the two evenings you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have bread to your heart’s content. Then you will learn that I, the Lord, am your God.”’

  And so it came about: quails flew up in the evening, and they covered the camp; in the morning there was a coating of dew all round the camp. When the coating of dew lifted, there on the surface of the desert was a thing delicate, powdery, as fine as hoarfrost on the ground. When they saw this, the sons of Israel said to one another, ‘What is that?’ not knowing what it was. ‘That,’ said Moses to them, ‘is the bread the Lord gives you to eat.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 77(78):3-4,23-25,54

Our fathers have told us of the might of the Lord and the marvellous deeds he has done.

Alleluia.

Listen, my people, to my teaching;

  open your ears to the words of my mouth.

I shall open my mouth in explanation,

  I shall tell of the secrets of the past.

All that we have heard and know –

  all that our fathers told us –

  we shall not hide it from their descendants,

but will tell to a new generation

  the praise of the Lord, and his power,

  and the wonders that he worked.

He set up a covenant with Jacob,

  he gave a law to Israel;

he commanded our ancestors to pass it on to their children,

  so that the next generation would know it,

  the children yet to be born.

They shall rise up and tell the story to their children,

  so that they put their trust in God,

so that they do not forget the works of God,

  so that they keep his commandments;

so that they do not become like their fathers,

  rebellious and troublesome,

a generation of fickle hearts,

  of souls unfaithful to God.

The sons of Ephraim, the bowmen,

  fled when it came to battle;

they did not keep their covenant with God,

  they refused to follow his law.

They forgot his deeds

  and the wonders he had shown them.

In front of their ancestors he had worked his wonders,

  in the land of Egypt, in the plains of Tanis.

He divided the sea and led them across,

  he held back the waters as if in a bag.

He led them in a cloud by day;

  and through the night, in the light of fire.

He split the rock in the desert

  and gave them water as if from bottomless depths.

He brought forth streams from the rock

  and made the waters flow down in rivers.

Still they insisted on sinning against him,

  they stirred up the wrath of the Most High in the desert.

They put God to the test in their hearts,

  asking for food, their desire.

They spoke out against God, saying

  “Can God lay a table in the wilderness?”

He struck the rock, and the waters poured out,

  and the streams were full to overflowing;

“But can he give us bread?

  Can he give meat to his people?”

The Lord heard all this, and he flared up in anger.

  Fire blazed against Jacob,

  his wrath rose up against Israel.

All this, because they had no faith in God,

  they had no trust in his saving power.

He commanded the clouds nevertheless,

  and opened the doors of the heavens.

Manna rained down for them to eat:

  he gave them the bread of heaven.

Men ate the food of angels;

  he gave them provisions in abundance.

In heaven he stirred up the east wind,

  he brought the south wind, by his power:

he rained meat on them as if it were dust,

  winged birds, like the sands of the sea,

to fall in the middle of their camp,

  all around their tents.

They ate and were full to bursting,

  and so he gave them their desire.

In the middle of their enjoyment,

  when the food was still in their mouths,

the wrath of God rose up against them,

  and slew the healthiest among them,

  and laid low the flower of Israel.

All this – and still they sinned,

  still they had no faith in his wonders.

He made their days vanish in a breath,

  their years in a headlong rush.

Whenever he was killing them, they sought him,

  repented and came back to him at dawn:

they remembered that God is their helper,

  that God, the Most High, is their saviour;

but their speech to him was only flattery:

  they lied to him with their tongues,

their hearts were dishonest towards him,

  they did not keep his covenant.

But the Lord is merciful:

  he forgives sin, he does not destroy.

Always he turned aside his anger,

  held back from unleashing all his wrath.

He remembered that they were flesh –

  a breath, that goes and does not return.

Alleluia!

They remembered that God was their helper and their redeemer.

Alleluia!

 

Second Reading – Ephesians 4:17,20-24

Put Aside Your Old Self and Put on the New

I want to urge you in the name of the Lord, not to go on living the aimless kind of life that pagans live. Now that is hardly the way you have learnt from Christ, unless you failed to hear him properly when you were taught what the truth is in Jesus. You must give up your old way of life; you must put aside your old self, which gets corrupted by following illusory desires. Your mind must be renewed by a spiritual revolution so that you can put on the new self that has been created in God’s way, in the goodness and holiness of the truth.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 14:6

Alleluia, alleluia!

I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, says the Lord; No one can come to the Father except through me.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 4:4

Alleluia, alleluia!

Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John 6:24-35 ©

It is My Father Who Gives You the Bread from Heaven; I Am the Bread of Life

When the people saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into boats and crossed to Capernaum to look for Jesus. When they found him on the other side, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’

Jesus answered:

‘I tell you most solemnly, you are not looking for me because you have seen the signs but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat.

Do not work for food that cannot last, but work for food that endures to eternal life,

the kind of food the Son of Man is offering you, for on him the Father, God himself, has set his seal.’

Then they said to him, ‘What must we do if we are to do the works that God wants?’ Jesus gave them this answer, ‘This is working for God: you must believe in the one he has sent.’ So they said, ‘What sign will you give to show us that we should believe in you? What work will you do? Our fathers had manna to eat in the desert; as scripture says: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’

Jesus answered:

‘I tell you most solemnly, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, it is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven, the true bread; for the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’

‘Sir,’ they said ‘give us that bread always.’

Jesus answered:

‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never be hungry; he who believes in me will never thirst.’

 

A Homily – The Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)