August 08, 2021, Sunday
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Green)
CYCLE B - YEAR I
Lectionary: 116
Reading I
1 Kgs 19:4-8
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
R. (9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Reading II
Eph 4:30—5:2
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
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
whoever eats this bread will live forever.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GOSPEL
Jn 6:41-51
“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.”
REFLECTION:
We live two lives - the flesh and the spirit, earthly and eternal. Faith in God is life-giving. It gives energy to the every day, to the commonplace. The struggle to do good and to live a gospel-centered life is nourished by our faith. Prayer is a time to be aware of the life that is eternal. Moments of prayer bring us in touch with the eternal within us, and the eternal around us, the atmosphere of the risen Christ.
Jesus lives in the shadow of eternity and calls on our faith that we will live forever. The call of love and the experience of love in life hints at something more than human, of a mystery totally linked to God. The bread of life is the gift of God's life on earth. In opening ourselves to the word of God and the bread of God we are gifted and graced with the love that lasts forever.
PRAYER:
Lord, you are starting to open to me what the Eucharist can mean: a pledge of eternal life, and nourishment for my daily journey, as well as the viaticum that will strengthen me for my last journey, to you.
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