Today, in the First Book of Kings, we read or hear this instruction given by an angel to the prophet, Elisha. The prophet has become weary, truly worn out, by the journey on which he has been sent. The angel assures him by he will be renewed and strengthened if he will eat what is set before him.
(1 Kg 19: 6-7) He was, indeed, strengthened by it, and continued on to the holy place to which he had been sent.
The Gospel passage from John for today’s celebration once again continues Jesus’ preparation of his disciples for the day that is coming. With every step in time and space that brings him and them to the reality of his Passion, Death, and Resurrection, they must come to believe WHO and WHAT he is. What the crowds are proclaiming, either exultantly or angrily, is a little or greatly off the mark!
In the mystery of God’s loving plan our ancestors were given the gifts of their journey through the desert, but they died. The bread of which Jesus now speaks is something wholly other, and other-holy! Here and now he is talking of that which will occur in him, is his Passion, Death and Resurrection...in his gift to them and to us during that Last Supper they will share. Here and now he is talking eternal life!
In our busy world, crowded with instruments to occupy our senses seemingly endlessly, it can be difficult to change gears to truly listen so as to hear. Something surely is lost when that happens in human interaction (can you say cell phone, can you say ear buds?). Something even greater is lost when we stop listening as Our Lord gathers and welcomes us because we’ve heard it all before. Our desert isn’t a desert that is barren but a desert of too much stuff, sound and fury that offers too little. Being prepared for the Lord’s voice and the Lord’s gifts takes effort and belief that he comes!