Weekly Reflection: 19th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year B
Reading References:
1st Reading: 1Kings 19:4-8
Psalm: Ps 33:2-9 R v. 9
2nd Reading: Ephesians 4:30-5:2
Gospel: John 6:41-51
Who is Jesus? We can come up with all the “correct” answers such as: Jesus is the God of Love, Jesus is the Son of God, Jesus is our Way, Jesus is our Truth and Jesus is our Life etc. This is all very well but Who is Jesus for you and for me - Who is Jesus for our world?
Our first reading tells us to: Get up and eat
Our second reading tells us: Follow Christ by loving as he loved you
The response to our psalm tells us to: Taste and see the goodness of the Lord
Our gospel today has Jesus saying: I am the bread of life
Surely we cannot answer the question of who is Jesus until we know Jesus. We need to get up from our sleep, from our lethargy and get to know Jesus through the Word through prayer and through all that we see happening around us and within us. For any relationship to grow we need to spend time with the person to get to know them. How many times in our lives have we met someone for the first time and we have made a negative judgment about that person only to discover that once we allow ourselves to really get to know them our opinion changes. This is a common experience.
Many people make a judgment about Jesus by their negative experiences of people who claim to know Jesus - the opinions, actions and behaviours of these people can present something very unattractive and very off putting for the onlookers and rightly so. And of course many of these onlookers think if that is what it is to believe in Jesus then, no thanks.
But the challenge for us today is to come and encounter Jesus personally. Come to know Jesus through the Word, through Prayer and through the Eucharist – taste and see the goodness of Jesus through the experience of your own heart. When we can do this then we will be able to begin to answer this profound question of Who is Jesus – we will begin to see Jesus’ presence in those around us and we will begin to recognize what is and isn’t of Jesus. If our eyes and hearts are opened there is much goodness to see and taste.
This personal relationship with Jesus is filled with mystery. We cannot attempt to predict where it may lead us. We will need to let go of our control on our lives and be open to the inspiration of the Spirit in our hearts. This relationship will take us on a journey of discovery that sometimes will be fearful and confronting, sometimes overwhelming, sometimes exhausting and exasperating, but it will always be filled with Love.
There is something profoundly mysterious present when watching people discover this relationship with Jesus. We see it with children preparing for the sacraments, their excitement, their innocence, their openness, their freedom of expression – if only we could harness this for the entire journey of life!
But we are deeply influenced by those around us. A number of parents could relate to their children coming to the awareness that it is not “cool” to be seen holding your mother or fathers hand in public or showing any other sign of affection publicly. Often as parents we laugh it off but in reality it is a tragic moment for us. It is the beginning of allowing others to dictate how we will behave. The children may still want to hold their parents hand but they give into peer pressure so as to avoid being humiliated. And as parents more often than not we also just accept this sad transition with very little resistance – we say: Oh well, that’s life while within our hearts there is a deep sadness.
I suspect our faith has become somewhat similar to the above in that we are influenced by those around us. Our individualistic culture sees little point in religious practice. Besides youth it is young families that are largely absent from the Sunday Eucharist. The excuse given is the busyness of our lives but is this really the reason? Individualism is in total contrast to Christianity. To believe in Jesus is to be in communion with those around you and to be in communion with Jesus/God. Christianity calls us to community – it calls us to love our neighbour – it calls us to love our God.
We have a world whose heart is aching. There is an epidemic of loneliness. There is an epidemic of fear. There is an epidemic of despair. We hunger for what Jesus is offering us today but we do not know what to do. So we just keep going with the flow and now everything seems to be spiraling out of control. We feel powerless to stop it. But we are not powerless to stop it. If we could only discover the power within us, if we could only discover what Jesus if offering us. But we keep turning our backs on what we hunger for most, just as the child stops holding the parents hand but deep down doesn’t want to.
Our belief in Jesus is critically important for our world. If people can see Christianity authentically being lived then there is nothing more contagious or powerful in our world. People will then find the courage to break the cycle that shatters their hearts and they will turn their backs on what disengages their hearts.
Jesus says to us today that he is the bread of life – he is the food we need for this journey. If we take the time to discover who Jesus is then we will have discovered this truth and our belief in Jesus will give us the courage to listen to our hearts and reject all that separates us from our deepest hunger and desire.
Let’s pray in the coming week for the DESIRE to know Jesus and what the Spirit is offering us.
1st Reading: 1Kings 19:4-8
Psalm: Ps 33:2-9 R v. 9
2nd Reading: Ephesians 4:30-5:2
Gospel: John 6:41-51
Who is Jesus? We can come up with all the “correct” answers such as: Jesus is the God of Love, Jesus is the Son of God, Jesus is our Way, Jesus is our Truth and Jesus is our Life etc. This is all very well but Who is Jesus for you and for me - Who is Jesus for our world?
Our first reading tells us to: Get up and eat
Our second reading tells us: Follow Christ by loving as he loved you
The response to our psalm tells us to: Taste and see the goodness of the Lord
Our gospel today has Jesus saying: I am the bread of life
Surely we cannot answer the question of who is Jesus until we know Jesus. We need to get up from our sleep, from our lethargy and get to know Jesus through the Word through prayer and through all that we see happening around us and within us. For any relationship to grow we need to spend time with the person to get to know them. How many times in our lives have we met someone for the first time and we have made a negative judgment about that person only to discover that once we allow ourselves to really get to know them our opinion changes. This is a common experience.
Many people make a judgment about Jesus by their negative experiences of people who claim to know Jesus - the opinions, actions and behaviours of these people can present something very unattractive and very off putting for the onlookers and rightly so. And of course many of these onlookers think if that is what it is to believe in Jesus then, no thanks.
But the challenge for us today is to come and encounter Jesus personally. Come to know Jesus through the Word, through Prayer and through the Eucharist – taste and see the goodness of Jesus through the experience of your own heart. When we can do this then we will be able to begin to answer this profound question of Who is Jesus – we will begin to see Jesus’ presence in those around us and we will begin to recognize what is and isn’t of Jesus. If our eyes and hearts are opened there is much goodness to see and taste.
This personal relationship with Jesus is filled with mystery. We cannot attempt to predict where it may lead us. We will need to let go of our control on our lives and be open to the inspiration of the Spirit in our hearts. This relationship will take us on a journey of discovery that sometimes will be fearful and confronting, sometimes overwhelming, sometimes exhausting and exasperating, but it will always be filled with Love.
There is something profoundly mysterious present when watching people discover this relationship with Jesus. We see it with children preparing for the sacraments, their excitement, their innocence, their openness, their freedom of expression – if only we could harness this for the entire journey of life!
But we are deeply influenced by those around us. A number of parents could relate to their children coming to the awareness that it is not “cool” to be seen holding your mother or fathers hand in public or showing any other sign of affection publicly. Often as parents we laugh it off but in reality it is a tragic moment for us. It is the beginning of allowing others to dictate how we will behave. The children may still want to hold their parents hand but they give into peer pressure so as to avoid being humiliated. And as parents more often than not we also just accept this sad transition with very little resistance – we say: Oh well, that’s life while within our hearts there is a deep sadness.
I suspect our faith has become somewhat similar to the above in that we are influenced by those around us. Our individualistic culture sees little point in religious practice. Besides youth it is young families that are largely absent from the Sunday Eucharist. The excuse given is the busyness of our lives but is this really the reason? Individualism is in total contrast to Christianity. To believe in Jesus is to be in communion with those around you and to be in communion with Jesus/God. Christianity calls us to community – it calls us to love our neighbour – it calls us to love our God.
We have a world whose heart is aching. There is an epidemic of loneliness. There is an epidemic of fear. There is an epidemic of despair. We hunger for what Jesus is offering us today but we do not know what to do. So we just keep going with the flow and now everything seems to be spiraling out of control. We feel powerless to stop it. But we are not powerless to stop it. If we could only discover the power within us, if we could only discover what Jesus if offering us. But we keep turning our backs on what we hunger for most, just as the child stops holding the parents hand but deep down doesn’t want to.
Our belief in Jesus is critically important for our world. If people can see Christianity authentically being lived then there is nothing more contagious or powerful in our world. People will then find the courage to break the cycle that shatters their hearts and they will turn their backs on what disengages their hearts.
Jesus says to us today that he is the bread of life – he is the food we need for this journey. If we take the time to discover who Jesus is then we will have discovered this truth and our belief in Jesus will give us the courage to listen to our hearts and reject all that separates us from our deepest hunger and desire.
Let’s pray in the coming week for the DESIRE to know Jesus and what the Spirit is offering us.
posted by Annemarie Reiner at 7:12 PM
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