Archbishop of Sydney

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
1 Kg 19:4-8; Eph 4:30-5:2; Jn 6:41-51

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
13/8/2006

There is no doubt that it is hard work being in the company of someone who is always complaining, especially when they complain without any sense of humour or irony, without any awareness of our discomfort.

But just as certainly most of us like to complain once in a while and probably that is a bit helpful psychologically and not too offensive to our family and friends.  Yesterday, for example, The Australian was not delivered and this morning neither of the two Sunday papers arrived.  Despite these cruel blows, life has to go on!

In the readings today we have two examples of complaints, one from Elijah and the other from Our Lord’s Jewish opponents.

We must always remember that Elijah appeared with Moses at the miracle of Our Lord’s transfiguration.  He was the representative of the Old Testament prophets beating Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and all the other contenders for the position, while Moses was there as the law-giver, preferred over Abraham, our father in faith.  Here we have Elijah telling the one true God that he has had enough, he wants to die.  He does not think well of himself and certainly does not praise his ancestors; he confesses he is as bad as they are.

But an angel came to his rescue feeding him with hot scones and a jug of water, which he ate and drank before going back to sleep.  Again the angel appeared, urging him to eat again to have strength for the journey.  He did as he was told and then walked for 40 days and 40 nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God, which we know better as Mt. Sinai, near the Southern tip of Sinai Peninsula.  This was a long walk indeed, perhaps 300 or 400 kilometres.

Obviously the food Elijah received is one of the indicators or “types” in the Old Testament, with the manna in the desert, for Christ’s description of himself as the bread come down from heaven.  We are obliged to have some sympathy with Jesus’ critics because they did know his family in Nazareth, Mary and Joseph, and they also knew that these were very much flesh and blood, not heavenly at all.  But this legitimate reasoning masked deeper prejudices and even hatred of the light.  The spirit of evil was abroad opposing Jesus’ claims.

The first instinct of many of us when we think of Our Lord as the bread of life is to think about the Eucharist.  Certainly this is true and Bishop Ignatius of Antioch, saint and martyr early in the second century, spoke of the Eucharist as the “medicine of immortality” developing the link in today’s Gospel between the bread from heaven and the eternal life, one of Christ’s central promises.  But this is not the whole story, because the meaning is broader than that. 

Last weekend there was press comment over the continuing and painful difficulties we have in an inner city parish.  Because I explained to the reporter that the primary task of a parish is religious, to preach Jesus Christ, to pray and form community, he reported that I wanted the parish to be saving souls as distinct from helping or serving them in their daily living.

No such split was mentioned by me, because daily living is important in itself and the only preparation for life in heaven.  To accept the teachings of Jesus Christ, to decide to live your life in faith, hope and love, attempting to follow the commandments, is transforming of daily life.  It transforms individuals and families and when a critical mass is created (is it 16 percent?) this can transform entire communities.

Therefore Jesus’ teaching and example can be understood as constituent elements of the bread of life or the bread from heaven.  Obviously it is connected with the “daily bread” we pray for in the prayer Jesus taught us, the Our Father.

Luther, the first of the sixteenth century Protestant reformers, defined daily bread as “food and clothing, home and property, favourable weather, health and peace, a good name and true friends and neighbours”.  He did not ask for much did he?  This is too wide a definition even for daily bread and it is certainly much too broad and directed in another direction away from a proper understanding of Jesus as the bread of life, the bread come down from heaven.

Nothing is gained by simply looking at bread, because it has to be eaten and digested before it can strengthen us.  Elijah had to eat a couple of times and sleep before he had the strength for the long haul to Mt. Sinai.

So too Our Lord does not want us to be merely sympathetic admirers of his teaching, spectators at the Christian sacraments.  He wants us to take his teachings into our hearts, to practise them in our daily living and then to be further strengthened by regular reception of Communion at our Sunday Eucharist’s.  Through communion Jesus becomes part of us.  No wonder the Jews were scandalized by Jesus’ call to eat his flesh and drink his Blood!

Les Murray, our greatest contemporary poet here in Australia, put it more than nicely:

“but naked in a muddy trench
with many thousands, someone’s saying
the true god gives his flesh and blood.
Idols demand yours off you”.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.