August
5, 2012, 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15 Ephesians 4:17, 20-24 John 6:24-35
Bread from heaven in the O.T.
There in the desert the whole
Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying to them, “We wish that the
LORD had killed us in Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of
bread! But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die
of famine!” Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will now rain down bread
from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather enough for
that day. In this way I can test them to find out if they will follow my
instructions. “The LORD said to Moses, “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them that at twilight they will have meat to eat, and in the morning they will have all the bread they want. Then they will know that I, the LORD, am their God.” In the evening a large flock of quail flew in and covered the camp, and in the morning there was dew all around the camp. When the dew evaporated, there was something thin and flaky on the surface of the desert. It was as delicate as frost. When the Israelites saw it, they did not know what it was and asked each other, “What is it?” Moses told them, “This is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.”
The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Alleluia,
alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John
Glory to you, Lord.
Glory to you, Lord.
The real
bread from heaven in the N.T.
When the
crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were
there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found Him across the sea they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus replied, “The truth of the matter is that you want to be with Me because I fed you the loaves and fishes, not because you believe in Me. Do not work just for food that perishes, but also for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him the Father, God, has set his seal.”
So they said to Him, “What can we do to
accomplish the works of God?”
Jesus answered: “This is the work of God
that you believe in the one He sent.” So they said to Him, “What sign can you
do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate
manna in the desert, as it is written, ` He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” So Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, what Moses gave you
was not the bread from heaven; it is my Father who gives you the real bread
from heaven. For the bread that God gives is He who comes down from heaven and
gives life to the world. So they said to Him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them, “I AM the bread of life.
Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will
never thirst.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord
Jesus Christ.
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Introduction
The 8th month of the rolling
year
Here it is the 1st Sunday of the August, the
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time and the 8th month of the rolling
year. Noticeably the days are shortening and the nights are lengthening. One
month from today (Wed.,
Sept. 5) Football Season 2012 will happily
burst upon a nation worried by these hard economic times, and wearied by the ho-hum
rhetoric of the upcoming presidential election on Nov. 6th. With
football soon upon us, life will be worthwhile living again (momentarily at
least), as we watch the game on a gorgeous fall day, or even during a howling
snowstorm. The pages are falling off
the calendar like autumn leaves falling from trees. The new year of 2012 isn’t
very new anymore.
I AM – the very name of God
In the Old Testament I AM is the very name of God. When God calls
Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, he asks God,
“When I go to the Israelites and tell them that the God of their ancestors has sent
me to them, they will ask me what His name is? So what shall I tell them?” God
said to Moses, “You must tell the Israelites that He whose name is I AM
has sent you to them.” (Ex. 3:11-14)
In the New Testament the
scribes and Pharisees knew that I AM was the very name of God. One day when they were engaged
in a rather lengthy and heated verbal scrap with Jesus (Jn. 8:31-59), He said to them, "Your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.” But they protested, “Why
you’re not even fifty years old--and you claim to have seen Abraham?” Jesus
replied, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I AM.” (Jn. 8:58).That was such a bold claim to the
very name of God that the Jewish authorities picked up stones to throw at Him,
but Jesus hid Himself and slipped out of the
Temple precincts.
The seven great `I AM’s of Jesus
Scripture scholars speak of the “The Seven Great ` I AM’s” of Jesus, which are sprinkled
throughout John’s gospel. Today’s reading quotes the first of the seven:
“I AM the bread of life. (Jn. 6: 35, 48, 51) Then in chapter 8 Jesus says, “I AM the light of the world.” (Jn. 8:12) In
chapter 10 He says, “I AM the
gate to the sheepfold. (Jn. 10:9) In the same chapter
Jesus says, “I AM the good
shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.” (Jn.10:11)
In chapter 14 He says, “I AM the way, the truth and the life.”
(Jn.14:6) Finally in chapter 15 He says,
“I AM the vine and you are the
branches, and my Father is the gardener. “(Jn. 15:5)
Last Sunday Jesus gives bread to 5000 hungry people. (Jn. 6:1-15) This Sunday Jesus is bread: “I tell you the truth, I AM the bread of life. Whoever
comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst.”
(Jn. 6:35)
Arch. O’Malley – the bread of life
On July 30, 2003, Capuchin Bishop
(now Cardinal) Sean Patrick O’Malley was installed as the 9th Archbishop
of Boston. O’Malley proceeded
immediately to become the
bread of life for the very hungry and confused sheep of the Archdiocese. Those
sheep were reeling under the scandal of sexual abuse committed by priests of
the Archdiocese. They were reeling also under the added scandal that the sexual
abuse had been covered up by Cardinal Bernard Law, then the Archbishop of Boston. In his
homily delivered with a deep mellow voice, Sean Patrick O’Malley lost no time
in confronting the scandal of clergy sex abuse which had painfully shamed the
faithful and countless good priests of the Archdiocese. Turning to a group of victims of priest-sex-abuse (who
had been invited) O’Malley said, “I’m pleased that so many victims have come to
this installation Mass. The healing of our
Church is inexorably bound up to your own healing; you are the wounds on the
body of Christ. We thank you for coming forward.”
The newspapers the next morning universally
gave the new Archbishop very high marks. One commentator said that
his style was not just about robes and sandals, but about the very core of the
man: “It was evident there was a genuine source down deep within Archbishop O’Malley from which everything was flowing.” He was,
indeed, the bread of life for all the very hungry and confused faithful in
the cathedral that morning.
Bp Untener – the bread of life
Bishop Kenneth Edward
Untener (1937- 2004)
also was the bread of life for the hungry sheep of his diocese. His first words as Bishop
of Saginaw M I, to the people of his diocese were: "My name is Ken,
and I AM your waiter. I will be your waiter for a very long time.” Then Bp.
Untener proceeded to wait upon his people and break bread for them. He sold the bishop's mansion, and for the next 24 years lived in
69 rectories. The
trunk of his car became his office. On the 25th anniversary of Pope
Paul VI's encyclical letter Humanae Vitae in 1993 (reaffirming the
Church's stand against artificial birth control) Untener used the occasion to
keep his promise to be a waiter serving his people. He invited his Church to reopen
an honest and transparent discussion on birth control. (His invitation was not
well received by his Church.) On the issue of divorce, Untener said, “I am not here to condemn divorced people, nor am I here to condone them.
I am here to help them. Jesus did not come to condemn or condone the woman
caught in adultery; He came to help her.”
Bishop
Untener did such a wonderful job of being the people’s `waiter’ and of being
the bread of life for his hungry flock, that a throng of 1800 people attended his funeral Mass on
April 1, 2004. The church that day resounded with a strange mix of crying and laughing, and it joyously rang out with
audible `Amens’ and a standing ovation.
Good Pope John – the good shepherd
Pope
John XXIII summoned his Church to the Second Vatican Council (Oct.11, 1962- Dec. 8, 1965). Vatican II dramatically
changed the course of the Bark of Peter with its 16 conciliar documents. What
John did for the Church was, indeed,
important, but what he was for the
Church was even more important. In his homily on the day of his `coronation’ he
didn’t tell the crowds what he was planning to do, but what he was planning
to be for the Church: a good shepherd.
He told the crowds, “Your new pope has in mind the words of Jesus who said: `I
AM the good shepherd.’” (Jn. 10:11) The next day, John went forth to be a good shepherd, visiting
prisoners in a Roman jail and aged priests in a nursing home. His outstanding
example of a good shepherd perhaps transformed the Church even more than the
Council which John called.
When John
lay dying, the
whole world was there kneeling at the bedside of its good shepherd. (That is
not an exaggeration.) Among them was Australian writer Morris L. West
(1916-1999), who is well known especially for his books The Devil’s Advocate and The
Shoes of the Fisherman. Though West often criticized the Church
in his writings, he was, however, one of those sheep who lovingly knew
the good shepherd, Pope John. In a little volume entitled A View from the Ridge West (writing out of his own personal life
experiences in and with the Church) paints contrasting portraits of John XXIII
and his successor John Paul II. West was a kind of man’s man, but when he
writes of John XXIII he becomes quite emotional.
I am very close to tears as I begin to set down the
words. What can I say of a man so manifestly good? In his hands the crosier of
the bishop has meant what it was meant to mean—the crook of the kindly
Shepherd, to whom the way-worn and the stragglers meant more than those penned
up safely in the sheepfold.
I
believe I can say with certainty that I remained in communion with the Church
even when the Church itself excluded me, and I remain there still, principally
because of the presence of John XXIII, the Good Shepherd, whom I never met,
though I did meet his predecessor and his successor. Goodness went out from
this man to me. I acknowledged it then. I acknowledge it again. We had had a
surfeit of princes and politicians and theologians – even of conventional
saints. We needed a man who spoke the language of the heart. We had John too
briefly.
Conclusion
I AM – more important than I DO
What I DO as `doctor, lawyer, merchant or chief,’ or what I DO as
pope, cardinal, bishop or priest is, indeed, important. What I AM, however, is more important than what I DO! When I AM bread for someone
who’s hungry, when I AM light for someone who’s in the dark, when I AM a door
for someone who’s knocking to get in, when I AM a good shepherd to some hungry
sheep seeking a green pasture, etc. - that’s even more important than what I DO.
Jesus’ seven great `I AM’s challenge me to define myself not by what I DO but
by what I AM.
