Texts taken from the Missal “On Your Word” July-August 2024

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
3rd week, Psalter

FIRST READING

From the First Book of Kings (1 Kgs 19:4-8)
In those days, Elijah went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. He longed for death and said: “Enough, Lord! Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. But an angel touched him and said to him: “Get up and eat!” He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and then lay down again. The angel of the Lord came back a second time, touched him, and said: “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” He got up, ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he walked for forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. – The word of the Lord.

Commentary on the First Reading

In the life of a believer, and particularly in the life of someone carrying out a demanding mission, there are moments when discouragement arises, accompanied by the desire to abandon the task entrusted by God. Even the prophet Elijah, opposed by those who hold power, begins to think of ending his life, entering the wilderness as a place of death. But the Lord knows how to overturn human plans, transforming that journey toward darkness into a pilgrimage toward the mountain of revelation, where God will show himself to him and give him new and meaningful tasks. For the moment, he needs to be shaken, nourished, and encouraged. The angel of God, as a messenger of goodness, offers him food so that he may regain the vital strength that had failed him, overwhelmed by disappointment. Twice he needs to be called back, and finally he can walk toward an encounter with the Lord. For us too, the Eucharist, as the bread of life, enables us to rise and set out along the winding paths of life, ready to serve the Lord with complete generosity.

SECOND READING

Brothers and sisters, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were marked for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, shouting, and slander be removed from you, along with every kind of malice. Instead, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, offering himself to God as a fragrant sacrifice. – The word of the Lord. (Eph 4:30 – 5:2).

Commentary on the Second Reading

From the radiant message concerning the heavenly Father's forgiving mercy, to Christ's love revealed in the sacrificial gift of his life on the cross, to the irruption of the sanctifying Spirit in Baptism, the ethical and existential implications become clear. From what God freely offers us, we move into the life of the believer and arrive at the heart of Christian conduct, with very concrete moral exhortations for the community. Every possible determination of one's existence, every authentic examination, every sound discernment of what it means to be Christian is carried out only in awareness of the gifts received, as beloved and forgiven children. Only in the light of divine goodness do the believer's ways of acting appear in their true substance, recalling divine forgiveness and opening the heart to persevering mercy. The passage from the letter records the mysterious relationship that binds deplorable human misery to saving love, which bends down over it to transform it into grace and holiness. Only then can we be kind, merciful, and free from every form of wickedness and selfishness.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to John (Jn 6:41-51)
At that time, the Jews began to complain about Jesus because he had said: “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said: “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? How then can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them: “Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets: ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you: whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” – The Gospel of the Lord.

Commentary on the Gospel of the Day

If Jesus is the bread that came down from heaven, two fundamental questions arise: one concerns his divine origin, and the other concerns the kind of life that is offered to us. Regarding the first question, it is natural to think that Jesus, like every human being, derives his origin from his parents. Instead, he firmly declares that he was sent to earth from communion with God as the Father's gift to humanity; human beings, however, are called to welcome him in faith, which is not reduced to a human capacity for understanding or will. A special grace, a divine attraction, is necessary, by which the disciple is urged to direct his life toward Christ. Regarding the second question, another question arises: what kind of life do we receive if we nourish ourselves on him? The expression “eternal life” refers to that fullness of existence possessed by God alone, which human beings receive in faith to such an extent that no power of death can destroy it. If bread, or even manna, serves for survival, it certainly cannot guarantee everlasting life. On the contrary, through the Eucharist Jesus brings us into that source of life, so that we may already taste God's eternity, ready to rise on the last day.