Eucharist: The food for the Journey 

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St. Gerard Majella Church

Baton Rouge, LA, USA

August 12, 2012

What does it really mean to share communion with another person? The most dramatic and yet familiar image of communion between persons is to be found in the marriage bond. The book of Genesis 2:24 tells us that “a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh,” the two are united in an intimate communion of life and love. This very covenant between a man and a woman is by nature life-giving. For this reason, we say that the bond of marriage exists for the sake of both life and love.  

This is how it is with the Eucharist. Our communion with Jesus Christ is, in fact, a spousal union. Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom and we the church, are his bride. We are intimately united with him in the holy Eucharist that we become one body with him. By eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood we are materially and substantially united to Jesus Christ in an intimate communion of life and love. And if our hearts are truly open to the grace that is offered us in this sacrament, if we receive the Lord worthily, with willing hearts, we participate in the very life of Jesus Christ, and through him, we  partake in the life of the Blessed Trinity as well. This marriage relationship with Christ Jesus, by its very nature, is life-giving and makes us fertile. This union makes us generators of life and givers of life to those who hunger and thirst for God. 

In today’s first reading taken from 1 Kings 19:4-8, we see a foreshadowing, an indication of this mystery in the story of prophet Elijah in the desert. Prophet Elijah was being hunted down by Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab for silencing the false prophets of a false god, Baal. In a message to Elijah, Jezebel said, “May the gods strike me dead if by this time tomorrow I don’t kill and destroy you.” Elijah was frightened by her threat, so, he escaped and ran into a desert. Elijah walked a whole day into the desert and thereafter became tired and worn out. In his fatigue, he prayed “Lord, this is too much for me. (Please) take away my life; I might as well be dead!” While sleeping under a tree, an angel of God came to Elijah with heavenly bread. The angel ordered him, “Wake up and eat.” When Elijah got up from his slumber, he found a loaf of bread and a jar of water near his head. He ate and drank, and lay down again. Later, the angel came back and said to him, “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you.” Elijah ate again and was strengthened both in body and in spirit to continue his journey to the mountain of God’s presence- an earthly image of heaven- and strengthened also to continue proclaiming God’s presence to those he had been sent to preach. 

Beloved in Christ, Elijah got the strength and the encouragement he needed by simply obeying the orders of an angel who said to him, “Wake up and eat!” By eating the bread and drinking the water offered to him by an angel, he got his lost strength back. He was nourished and strengthened not only spiritually but also physically. But Jesus, our Most Holy Redeemer, the One greater than an angel, greater than all the angels, the One that all the angels worship is offering us the real Bread- his Body and the real Drink, his Blood. In today’s Gospel he says to us, “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.”

You know, when Jesus said those words to his audience, they immediately rejected and dismissed him saying “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, “I have come down from heaven?” They judged him by human values and by external standards, and easily dismissed him. They couldn’t understand how Jesus, the son of a carpenter, a man from a poor home could possibly be the Son of God. 

But this Gospel is no longer about the Jews of Jesus’ time. It is about us! Do we sincerely, profoundly and supremely believe that Jesus is the bread that came down from heaven? Do we believe that the Bread and Wine we eat and drink at Mass is the Body and and Blood of Jesus? When reflecting on the Eucharist, do we only apply  human, scientific and external standards? What drives and motivates us? Faith? Sight? Let’s remember the words of St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:7 “Walk by faith and not by sight.” Let’s also remember that Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must first believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” 

In today’s Gospel, in this third section of John 6, Jesus invites us to come to him, to share communion with him by eating his flesh: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven...” Jesus is the essential for life. He is the essence of life. He is the quintessential of life. To refuse the invitation and command to partake in the Bread of Life is to refuse life. It is the food for the journey. And if we receive him in the right disposition, St. Augustine says, “We become what we receive- that is, the body of Christ.” 

Dearest beloved, Jesus is the food for the journey. The Eucharist is our food for the journey of discipleship. The words of the angel to prophet Elijah “get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!” says it all. The journey may be long! The journey may be steep. It may be an uphill or downhill journey. We may travel in sunny, pleasant conditions. We may also travel in cloudy, foggy, and dark night. But no matter what the journey brings, we will surely get to our destination if we are united with the Lord through the Eucharist. The Eucharist embodies the transformative power of the Cross. It contains Jesus’ everything, given to us so that we might live more fully here in this world and be ultimately granted a share in the marriage feast of the Lamb in the Kingdom. As we feed our body with material food for its sustenance, let’s not forget the most important food of all- the Eucharist. It’s the food for the journey. It nourishes both our body and our soul.