NINETEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Sunday August 8

NINETEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Get Up and Eat

Greeting (see Second Reading)

As God’s beloved children,
follow Christ by loving as he loved you,
giving himself up
as a sacrifice to God.
May the Lord Jesus be always with you. R/ And also with you.

Introduction by the Celebrant

What keeps people alive and growing and healthy? For their body, it is food and drink. Yet even for their body not only food and drink is needed but also the nourishment of love and security. What do we need to keep us going as Christians? It is our trusting faith in God. That faith is kept alive and growing in us through our close relationship with Christ. He nourishes this faith and love in us with the food and drink of his word and with the strength he brings us through the Eucharist; this is our “viaticum,” our food and drink for the road of life. It gives us the courage to stand up for what is right and good. Let the Lord Jesus give us in this Eucharist the food and drink of his word and his body.

Penitential Act

Too often we have not listened to Christ’s word
and have not eaten enough his bread of life.
Let us ask the Lord to forgive us.
                        (pause)
Lord Jesus, you give us the food of your word
and tell us to get up and walk:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.

Jesus Christ, you give us the food of your body
and tell us to walk by its strength:
Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, you give us the food of your love
and tell us to go and meet our neighbor:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.

Have mercy on us, Lord,
and take all our sins away.
Give us yourself as our food for the road
and lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.

Opening Prayer

Let us pray that Jesus’ bread of life
may sustain us on our journey
                        (pause)
God, Father of life,
your Son Jesus is our living bread
come down from you to give life
to us and to our world.
Let him restore our strength and courage
as we journey with him through life,
and give us the will and love
to share our bread with those who need it,
for in them Jesus cries out his hunger.
We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. R/ Amen.

First Reading: Bread for the Road

Tired of being God’s voice to a people that does not listen, Elijah is on the verge of a breakdown. Through an angel God gives him food to march 40 days – symbolic of a life-time – to encounter God and to receive from him new strength for his mission as a prophet.

Reading 1: 1 KGS 19:4-8

Elijah went a day's journey into the desert,
until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it. 
He prayed for death saying:
"This is enough, O LORD! 
Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers." 
He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree,
but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat. 
Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake
and a jug of water. 
After he ate and drank, he lay down again,
but the angel of the LORD came back a second time,
touched him, and ordered,
"Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!" 
He got up, ate, and drank;
then strengthened by that food,
he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

(9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Glorify the LORD with me,
Let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
And delivered me from all my fears.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy.
And your faces may not blush with shame.
When the afflicted man called out, the LORD heard,
And from all his distress he saved him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him and delivers them.
Taste and see how good the LORD is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Second Reading: Follow the Way of Love of Christ

A Christian must be loving and forgiving, like Christ, who sacrificed himself for us. In the Eucharist he can give us the strength to follow him.

Reading 2: EPH 4:30—5:2

Brothers and sisters:
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,
with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. 
All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling
must be removed from you, along with all malice. 
And be kind to one another, compassionate,
forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.

So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love,
as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us
as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.

Alleluia: JN 6:51

Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord;
whoever eats this bread will live forever.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Bread for the Life of the World

As we need bread or food to live, so we also need bread for eternal life. Jesus is that bread for the life of the world.

Gospel: JN 6:41-51

The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said,
"I am the bread that came down from heaven, "
and they said,
"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'?" 
Jesus answered and said to them,
"Stop murmuring among yourselves. 
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,
and I will raise him on the last day. 
It is written in the prophets:
They shall all be taught by God.
Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. 
Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God;
he has seen the Father. 
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes has eternal life. 
I am the bread of life. 
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven
so that one may eat 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."

Intercessions

Let us pray to Jesus Christ who said, “Those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never thirst.” He is bread for the road to all who seek him. Let us say:

R/ Stay with us, Lord.

–   For those who leave the Church because they do not like the renewal and for those who say farewell to the Church because changes are slow in coming, that they may learn to accept the human dimensions of the Church, let us pray:

     R/ Stay with us, Lord.

–   For those who are down with discouragement, for those wounded in life, for those who seek God but cannot find him, that we may become to them the humble way to Christ, let us pray:

     R/ Stay with us, Lord.

–   For those deserted by the people they trusted, for those struggling to remain loyal to their commitment in marriage or their mission in life, that the faithful Christ may be to them the bread of fidelity and strength, let us pray:

     R/ Stay with us, Lord.

–   For the poor and the handicapped, for the loners and misfits in life, that they may encounter real Christians who inspire and encourage them to believe in the love of God and people, let us pray:

     R/ Stay with us, Lord.

Lord Jesus Christ, when confronted with our own miseries and those of the people around us we feel small and powerless. Be to all of us the bread of strength, that our hearts may be compassionate, our love warm and deep, and our service faithful and self-effacing, for you are our Lord for ever. R/ Amen.

Prayer over the Gifts

God our Father,
you draw us to yourself through Jesus,
whom you sent to us as the bread of life.
Make us become what we are about to eat,
the living body of Christ,
united, bearing witness to him,
and bringing his life to the world.
We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. R/ Amen.

Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer

With joy let us raise our hearts and voices to thank our Father for his goodness. He is the power that saves us, the strength that keeps us going, through Jesus, given us in the Eucharist.

Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer

In the words of Jesus, God’s faithful Son,
let us pray to the Father of all
for strength and life: R/ Our Father...

Deliver Us

Deliver us, Lord from every evil
and keep us from discouragement.
When we run out of resources
and our strength crumbles,
help us to accept our limitations
and give us the bread of strength of your Son
to keep us going in joyful hope
until the coming in glory
of our Savior Jesus Christ. R/ For the kingdom...

Breaking of Bread (A. Schilling)

More than for food on the table,
people ask for love
and we need understanding and acceptance.
Let us implement Jesus’ words
and break bread for one another.
He has the power to change our lives.

Invitation to Communion

This is Jesus, our Lord,
the living bread
which has come down from heaven,
to be the life of the world.
Those who eat this bread
will live for ever.
Happy are we that the Lord invites us
to eat this bread of life. R/ Lord, I am not worthy...

Prayer after Communion

God, our Father who cares for us,
in this Eucharist you let your Son tell us:
Get up and eat and walk.
Let Jesus sustain us on our journey,
keep us from discouragement,
give us the courage to make him visible
in our words and deeds.
Let him lead us to the mountain
where you live as our God for ever. R/ Amen.

Blessing

The bread of life that we have eaten
commits us to one another.
If we are one with the Lord,
we must also be one with each other.
If he committed himself to us
at the cost of his life,
we must live for one another
and see to it that among us
no person is trampled underfoot.
We can carry out this assignment in life
with the blessing of almighty God,
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.

Let us go with the strength of Christ

and sustain one another. R/ Thanks be to God.

Commentary

The Word becomes flesh

Jesus made a declaration that could be considered blasphemous for the Jewish audience: "I am the bread of life." The Jews react severely as expected. They knew him for over 30 years. They knew his parents Joseph and Mary, and all his family members. And now he claims that he has come from heaven (41-42). How could Jesus be the bread of wisdom of God that came down from heaven?

The Jews murmur and refuse to follow the path that leads to God. John the evangelist, as he writes the Gospel, he is aware of all these difficulties that the Jews have in accepting Jesus. They profess their faith in Yahweh – the God of Israel – who punished the people whenever they went away from Yahweh and believed in some other gods. Therefore accepting Jesus as the Messiah was suicidal and understandably they are frightened by the idea of a God who became man. They could not conceive that God would reveal himself in a weak and fragile man, in a son of a carpenter.

In the Gospel of John, the word "Jew" indicates anyone who takes a hostile attitude to Jesus and refuses to believe that he is God's revelation. John wants to explain to his readers that "today" they must choose between the Gospel, which is the bread of life, or the proposals of the world. Unfortunately, today, there are many who do not believe that "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life" (Jn 3:16).

Why is this happening? What is the root of this unbelief? The discovery of this "bread of heaven" is not an achievement of man but a gift of the Father. Is this gift given only to a few? The Gospel message is clear – Words of Jesus were not restricted to a few. It was given to all without conditions. But only a few really accepted the message and followed him; and they were instructed by the Holy Spirit.

A lot of people refuse to believe in Jesus and his proposal today: not everyone nourishes on the Word of God. Remember, the Gospel of John began with the core of our faith: The Word became Flesh and dwelt among us.” And now he invites us to eat that “Flesh” – that is to assimilate the Word – if you want to have life. But, Pay attention to one important point: this episode is not about the Eucharist. The Bread of Life that Jesus speaks of is the gospel – The Word of God.