Today’s Gospel Reading gives us more of the marvelous discourse from John 6. Jesus promises the supreme gift of His Holy Eucharist. Wonderfully coupled with the Sunday Gospel, the First Reading presents us with an Old Testament heralding of God’s promise through the prophet Elijah. This promise will be fulfilled perfectly and permanently by Jesus in the His Holy Eucharist.
1 Kings 19:4-8
In the First Reading, the prophet Elijah is exhausted and discouraged. Everything God has worked through him seems to him to have been done in vain and he wants to die. Then, in the middle of the wilderness, Elijah receives miraculous food with instructions to feed himself because he needs it to ascend the mountain of God. Strengthened by this food, Elijah is able to walk forty days and forty nights. He thought it was all over for himself; God provides sustenance that empowers the prophet to turn the end into a new beginning – not at his whim, but under obedience to the divine instruction received.
John 6:41-51
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus gives and demands far more than Elijah experienced from God. As truly as the hearth cake and jar of water were tangible signs of God’s care for Elijah in the middle of the wilderness, so Jesus’ Body which will become Bread for the life of the world. The Holy Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Jesus will become concrete, tangible and real for everyone the moment He offers Himself for us and for our salvation.
