Bread of Life / Background Check (2021-08-08, Sunday - 19)

Homily – August 8, 2021  /  19^th Sunday (Year B)

●  1 Kings 19:4-8  ●  Psalm 34   ● Ephesians 4:30-5:2 ● + John 6:41-51  ●

Title:   Bread of Life / Background Check (ver. 7)

[__01__]    Before I even enter/dial the phone number to my doctor's office to the medical group with all the doctors and nurses or the phone number to CVS Pharmacy about a prescription, I get ready to pronounce my date of birth, and the clear spelling of my last name.

Before I even tell them why I am calling. I am preparing to authenticate to prove who I am. What's your date of birth? What are the last four digits of your social security number? What's your mother's maiden name?

You know the drill.

And if you're in the hospital, this drill is repeated over and over again several times a day. You're asked a few times a day, what's your name? What's your date of birth?

Do you find this troublesome? frustrating? Yes, it can be troublesome to be asked this over and over again.

Because we wish that our name would be enough or maybe our face would be enough maybe our face is so memorable.

Or we wish that we didn't have to go through the equivalent of a criminal background check every time we want to change an appointment or renew a prescription. Yes, it can be frustrating, troublesome. We can be frustrated and troublesome troubled by this, we can be troubled by the background proceed check procedure

Jesus could be troubled by this background check procedure because it's similar to what is happening to him by the crowd in the Gospel. today.

They're trying to identify him to interrogate him. They want more information than simply his name, and his last name and his hometown. And in fact, based on the background check of the crowd, our Savior does not really measured up to them. Everything had been going well up until now, up until recently, Jesus a few verses earlier in the same chapter of the gospel, and two Sundays ago in the Gospel, fed them with the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes and the miracle. That is he fed the crowd Jesus fed the crowd with physically with calories and nutrition.

That was the prescription to their hunger diagnosis, the “medicine of the multiplication”

 

Jesus produced something that the crowd of people wanted.

Now, going back to the medical example, doctors and nurses produce something that we want, they produce a diagnosis that we want, or they produce the therapy that we want, or they produce a medicine that we want. And this leads to something more than just a material outcome or transaction. This produces trust, a real spiritual trust between you and your physician or nurse.

So our connections to the doctor isn't just based on the fact that we like the pills, or we like the diagnosis. Or we'd like that we'd like what the therapy the nurse offers us or the injection. But we like them for their attitude. We like their whole person. We like everything, we everything that can be summarized in those important words, the “bedside manner”.

So our connection to our doctors and nurses is based on a personal relationship. And then a personal relationship of such trust that it's frustrating to be asked over and over again.

name?

date of birth?

last 4 digits of SSN?

You're like, Hey, don't you know who I am? I trust YOU. Don’t you trust me ?  But the doctor or nurse does this because he or she wants want to treat you or me as an individual they don't want to mix us up with anybody else.

That's just how healthcare works, right? But Jesus as our Lord and Savior and physician also doesn't want to lose track of us or mix us up with anybody else.

And hearing that the people were grumbling and complaining about him in the Gospel episode, Jesus said to them, stop murmuring stop grumbling among yourselves. Sometimes, a doctor may say this to us in the most loving and professional terms… implying … Hey, stop complaining.

Jesus goes on to say that he has in mind a treatment plan, a diagnosis and an invitation to repentance that is custom designed for each of us. No copay required. And this is based on his consultation with God the Father. Jesus continues promising us something about this diagnosis.

 

 

[__02__]    Jesus continues saying, 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.

In other words, Jesus does not want to lose track of us. How can we know that Jesus really is the bread of life that Jesus really is the good news.

I asked, How can we know this? Because then the gospel and in later readings, some of the people are losing, losing trust with Jesus. They're finding Jesus to be misinformed. They accused him of religious blasphemy, they think he's lacking sanity, they think he's out of his mind. I'd like to reflect on the ways that that our Lord and Savior, our connection with him is beneficial and good for us. Good for our wellness and body and soul.

 

Three things we can learn from Jesus's message to us. Not just in this message, but generally,

 

[__03__]    1^st. TRUTHFULNESS.

It's easy for us to say that our default setting is to truth and telling the truth that's easy to say. It's easy to say that I avoid telling lies, that's good. But to be truthful, takes practice. And Jesus knows this takes years of practice starts when you're young, but then it continues into our adulthood. Jesus teaches us this by by his parables by His Word. He doesn't interrogate you and me and say, Are you a liar, but he simply says that he who is true, truthful or faithful in small things, will be faithful in great things. And by studying his word, and paying attention to all of Jesus's commandments, not just about the big stuff, hey, because what is the big stuff is that hey, I didn't kill anybody, or I didn't rob a bank. But we realized that the commandments invite us to be truthful. And to live lives of integrity and how we express our emotions, how we show respect to others, how we ask questions, how we treat our elders, how we treat young people, how we spend our money. In all of these things. We're called to be truthful, body and soul. And this affects our whole profile. So that truthfulness, Jesus teaches about truthfulness.

 

2^nd . TRANQUILITY. And secondly, Jesus teaches us about tranquility or serenity or peacefulness. Jesus's version of peace does not mean that we will simply acquiesce. Or let everybody get their own way. Sometimes to work for true peace or peacefulness, even peace in our families, we may have to say something difficult or unpopular. I may have to admit I'm wrong, I may have to correct somebody else. In a charitable way. Jesus gives us peace The world cannot give. He's asking us to follow his way. And along the way there may be the peace is not simply the absence of conflict, Jesus asked us to be of good cheer. Finally, so there's Jesus's offering as truthfulness Jesus is offering us tranquility

 

3^rd. TRIUMPH.  Finally, Jesus is offering us triumph, a victory, the bread of life, message for all of us. doesn't start after we die. We don't get that victory. after we die. It starts now. Jesus says, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. It's here now. But living bread came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. And the bread which I shall give him for the life of the world is my flesh. This refers both to his real presence in the Blessed Sacrament, and in the books of the Bible, just like we and so this means that just like we make an except vows on a wedding day, or we make this affects all of our sacramental journey,  our view of eternal life. So when a husband and wife get married, they're making vows on their wedding day. Or when they make promises of baptism to raise our children Catholic or, you know, to, to our profession of faith or to make promises in confession. When we confess our sins. We accept that all of these things are mysteries, we don't really know the future. The future is a mystery, and I'm a mystery. But we enter into these mysteries because we believe that they are for our greater good, giving us a connection to God more than we could attain by our own ingenuity. So we say yes, to God, we say yes, to love. That triumph. That's eternal life. But it's difficult to get there. One of sometimes we have to change along the way. One of my own reasons for postponing my own response to God and to ministry and entering the priesthood entering the study to be a Catholic priests was that I knew that I would have to accept certain changes that I myself might have to change. Of course, I'm not talking about the fact that I would have to become this cookie cutter Christian disciple, this cookie cutter version of hashtag priest app that the diocese is releasing as software to the parish. If that were the case, there Some bugs in the software I don't fit into the software package. Padre is not perfect. But that isn't what it is. Jesus is accepting you and me as individuals. At the same time he has a plan for us a plan that includes our faith in his truth, a plan that includes our faith and his tranquility, our faith in his triumph. And part of this triumph is we accept that he is really present in the bread and wine consecrated on the altar, and that he invites us to trust Him and to respect and love others as well. Is there mystery? There's a mystery, the Holy Eucharist is a mystery. You're a mystery. I'm a mystery, the mystery is not solved just because you know, the last four digits of some social security number or you know the date of birth, or you know, their, their mother's maiden name. Sometimes I am a mystery to myself, I cannot know myself perfectly. I rely on prayer and relationship with others and relationship with God so that I can know that I am loved. And you also I asked you to rely in the same way on God on your loving relationship with others to know that you are loved and that we are one in the mystery of God's love.

Yes, God does know both our name and number even before we call out to Him. He is waiting for our call, for our response.

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