Browsing Homilies

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

1 Kgs 19:4-8 | Ps 34 | Eph 4:30-5:2 | Jn 6:41-51

When we’re away from our homes and kitchens, we tend to eat differently. This is especially true when we’re traveling. Meals tend to be taken wherever it’s most convenient. The food is often nothing to boast about. It’s usually inexpensive, hastily assembled, and not terribly nutritious. That’s the price of our being in a hurry to get from point A to point B.

P.S. Why do I want Chick-fil-A on the way home from here almost every Sunday? In the Philadelphia airport on my retreat:

  • “They be closed on a Sunday even in the airport?”
  • Three young guys, one punched the other in the arm: “Naw, dude, it’s Sunday” (expletive).
  • One little boy was inconsolable as his mother turned him around: “They’re closed, baby.” “But I see people working!”
  • “Umm, I know you’re closed and everything, but could I get a Chick-fil-A sauce?”

In times past, travel food wasn’t much better. It came in the form of a dense, dry, and hard cake formed simply from flour and water. On land, it was known as “hardtack” and at sea as “sea biscuit.” The advantage of these hard cakes was that they were easy to carry, packed a lot of calories in their small size, and lasted for months. The disadvantages were that they weren’t particularly tasty, and too hard to bite into. Travelers would have to soak them in water before eating them.

Elijah, our traveler from our first reading, had his own traveling food in what our translators call a “hearth cake.” When we hear this, we might think of a plate of pancakes served for him by God’s angel, but we should have in mind the hardtack just described. It was a good thing the angel also left a jug of water for Elijah. He probably needed it to choke down his hearth cakes. Once eaten he had strength to make his long journey to Mount Horeb.

We too are travelers. We are traveling through our Christian lives, a journey that began with our baptism when we were claimed for Christ and will ultimately end with our entry into eternal life. Just like Elijah, we need to be fed for our journey to meet God. Our food is the Eucharist.

In the Roman Catholic Church, the Eucharist is composed of the elements of unleavened bread and wine. The unleavened bread harkens back to the flight from Egypt the Israelites made on the Passover. It was their hardtack for the journey to the Promised Land. The wine would’ve been used by travelers to purify the uncertain water found along the way.

The Eucharist, we know, is more than simply food. It is Christ’s very self. “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” Christ tells us in our gospel for today. Christ is our nourishment for our journey through this life. His blood, as seen in the Eucharistic wine, purifies us of our imperfections and sins.

When we begin to see things through this perspective, the perspective of faith and symbol, our worship together can be more than a weekly obligation. The Mass can be experienced as an exit on the highway for us who are weary to stop, rest, and nourish ourselves for the next leg of journey.

It’s here we can celebrate together with other travelers the wonders we have seen, the toils we have overcome, and sights we hope to see shortly. Also, it’s an opportunity for us to heal from wounds the jagged pathways may have inflicted upon us. The Mass and the Church that celebrates it is indeed a hospital for our souls.

Jesus Christ wants us travelers to reach our destinations of eternal life with him in the Holy Trinity. For this he did so much, suffered so much, and left us the Eucharist to make sure that we have what we need to finish our journey. May we be mindful of all this and take full advantage of “this living bread that came down from heaven,” the Eucharist, our life journey’s true food!

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