Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we have heard the words of the Scripture readings which all told us about one aspect of God, that is how He cares for all of His beloved ones, and He showed them all that care, by providing them with what they need, first of all food, the food that perishes, the earthly sources of food that fill up our stomach, and then, more importantly, He provides us with the true Food that lasts forever.

In the first reading we heard how the prophet Elijah was desperate and suffering from torment, which if we understand the background of the story from the previous chapters, was because of the intense persecution which the wicked king Ahab of Israel and his wife, queen Jezebel had initiated against the faithful ones and especially against Elijah, after he had shown the power of God against the four hundred and fifty priests of Baal on Mount Carmel in Israel.

The armies and forces of the king were sent to capture and torture Elijah, and he was fleeing from all these. Rejected by his own king, by his own people, and with people crying and seeking for his blood, we can indeed see why Elijah was desperate and truly suffering from all the challenges he was facing then. But what is important is, we have to take note what God did with Elijah.

God gave Elijah food and drink to strengthen him and his body, and sent His angels to serve him. The nourishment empowered him and gave him the strength to go on for the journey he was to embark on, to the Mount Horeb, the mountain of God, to meet God and to find out what His will was for the people of Israel. This is together with another occasion in which God also sent ravens to feed Elijah during his time running from the authorities, to give him strength against all the difficult challenges.

And if we link this to how God showed His great love to the people of Israel during their time in the desert, then we will surely be able to understand how much God had loved us, that He provided everything we need for us. When the people of Israel were thirsty in the desert, He gave them crystal clear and sweet water that gushed out from the rocks itself to drink, and when they were hungry, the Lord gave them manna, the bread of angels from heaven to eat, as well as large birds to be their food.

And we know how Jesus fed the multitudes of five thousand men, not counting the women and children present then, and on another occasion, He also fed more than four thousand men and the accompanying women and children as well. He knew that they were hungry after following Him for days and not having any food with them, and He fed them, giving them what they need to sustain their body.

All these should have awakened us to the fact that God truly cares for us all, regardless of our sins and rebelliousness which had torn us apart from His grace and love. He who created us with love, continues to love us from time to time, again and again, and He would not let us go hungry or thirsty, and He would not let us go on unloved and without His grace wherever possible.

He gave us everything we need, and most important of all, which we should remember, is that He gave us all life. Life is a gift from God to us, that when His Spirit entered our bodies made from dust and the earth, His Spirit dwelled in us and life entered our bodies and we are alive. But many of us have seemed to forget about this fact, and we showed no gratitude at all to the Lord who had given us all that we need in life.

Hence, all of us really need to think of how we have lived our lives so far, and see whether we have been grateful for the love and all the blessings our Lord had given us. But then, we also have to look beyond mere worldly sustenance and the fulfillment of what our bodies require. And in this, we have to reflect on what our Lord Jesus had done, and what He had taught us.

When Jesus was in the desert, as He was fasting for forty days and forty nights in preparation for His ministry after His baptism at the Jordan, Satan tempted Him to turn the stones into bread to satisfy His hunger after fasting for such a long period of time. But Jesus rebuked Satan by saying that men do not live on bread alone, but on every words that came from the mouth of God.

This is truly significant, for we have to see it in terms of who Jesus really is. Jesus, if we look at the first chapter of the Gospel of St. John, is the Divine Word incarnate, He who is God, who was God, and who will ever be God, the Word that created all of creations including all of us, and the Word which came down from heaven by the will of God, that with the Holy Spirit, He assumed the flesh of man, and was born of the Virgin Mary.

He is truly Man, but at the same time, He is also truly and fully God. He has two natures, God and Man, distinct but completely and perfectly in harmony and united in Jesus Christ, Word of God made Man. And if we remember the passage from the Gospel today, how He referred to the ancestors of the people to whom He was speaking to, and how those people ate the manna but still died, this will help us to understand indeed.

Jesus referred to Himself as the Bread of Life, the Living Bread, and all who have share in Him, His Body and also His Blood, shall have eternal life and not die. Remember that Jesus rebuked Satan by saying that men do not live on bread alone but on every words that came from the mouth of God? Jesus is the Word, and all who share in Him, have life in them.

For those who ate of the bread of the world, including manna, the bread of heaven, all these satisfied only the needs of the flesh, which our Lord indeed had blessed us and provided for us whatever we need. But, more importantly, all of us are longing to be satisfied spiritually, in our hearts, minds and souls, that we may be made satisfied by whatever we receive from the Lord.

And this satisfaction comes from Christ alone, and when Christ gave us freely His Body and His Blood to be shared and to be received as part of us, we have essentially receive the spiritual and bodily nourishment for ourselves, and if we allow God to dwell in us, by receiving Him worthily, His Body and His Blood and Presence which is in the Eucharist, then we shall shine and be justified, and if our actions reflect what we have believed in, then we shall be saved.

Again, we see how God loves us so much, that He wants to make us complete, nourish us and make us whole again. For we have been tainted since sin entered into us, by the disobedience and rebellion which we have committed against Him from generation to generation. And only through God that we can be completely reconciled to Himself, and that was what Jesus had done.

That when we are all still sinners and unworthy, God had allowed Himself to take up the burden of the sins which we have committed, and placed upon His own shoulders the price and punishments for our sins, ever since the days of our first ancestors until today, and in the many years and time to come. He placed all of them on Himself, so that, by offering the perfect sacrifice of love, He may reconcile all of us to God, and be given a new chance at redemption and eternal life with God.

And those who share in His Body and His Blood, which He shed from the cross for us, will therefore receive the effects of God’s saving works, and thus also will be liberated from the bonds of sin, the wickedness of this world that had been holding us back all these while. Therefore, today, let us all pray for the grace that we may be ever strengthened in our faith and in our devotion to God, so that we can worthily receive our Lord and Master into ourselves, and as He dwell in us, He may bring us closer to life eternal.

May Almighty God be upon all of us, and give us all of His graces and blessings. And may He help us to overcome the weakness of our desires, so that we may be able to focus our own attention to seek out the true gift and goodness which came from God alone. May He bless us now and forever and give us His light to shine on our path to find Him. Amen.