9 August 2015 – 19th Sunday Ordinary Time – I Kings 19:4-8, John 6:41-51

     When I was traveling to Indianapolis for my mission appeal a couple of weeks ago, I was looking for an interesting book to read that wouldn’t be a heavy book of theology, which is the usual type of book I read these days.  I came across The Call of the Wild by Jack London, a book written more than 100 years ago that I had read as a young teenager.   It was the type of book we were encouraged to read in junior high.  This novel was told from the perspective of a dog who was sold to pull a dogsled for those traveling to the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 19^th century. I remember enjoying the adventure of this wonderful story as a young teen, and was not disappointed reading it again as an adult. 

      Like a lot of the books we like to read for pleasure, there are a lot of amazing stories we read in the Bible, stories that touch both our hearts and our imagination.  Elijah is one of the most revered prophets from the land of Ancient Israel, so there are a lot of wonderful stories about him in the Bible. In fact, each year when the Jewish people celebrate the Passover Seder meal, they open the door for Elijah’s entrance and have a special chair symbolically waiting for him at their table.  Elijah is a courageous, tenacious hero of the Jewish people, but today, we hear about Elijah at a low point in his life.  As God’s prophet, he had been led to confront King Ahaz & Queen Jezebel for turning their backs on God in favor of the Phoenician God Baal. Elijah had the false prophets of Israel slain in a great display of his power. However, afterwards, Elijah is very distraught; he feels alone because no one is listening to the message he is proclaiming to the people.  So, in his despair, he cries out to God. He prays for his own death while resting underneath a broom tree in the middle of his journey through the desert.  In answer to his prayers, an angel visits him twice in the middle of the night. Elijah is strengthened by the food that the angel gives him, enabling him to continue on his journey to the mountain where God had previously appeared to Moses, to the place where God had given the Jewish people the Ten Commandments. 

       Elijah found the faith to carry on, to continuing on his journey.  But sometimes we are faced with tough choices.  Sometime we don’t get the storybook ending that we want.  The past week marked the 70^th anniversary of the bombings of the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima that brought about the surrender of Japan and an end to WWII.  This week, in our liturgical calendar, we comemorate two saints who are martyrs who came out of WWII.  Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was born to a Jewish family in German – her original name was Edith Stein.  As a teenager, she renounced her Jewish faith and eventually became a professor of philosophy.  Reading the autobiography of St Teresa of Avila inspired her conversion to Catholicism and some years later led her to become a Carmelite nun. Over in Poland, Maximilian Kolbe was a Franciscan priest.  He ran a publishing house out of his monastery that published very popular Catholic magazines and books.  Maximilian Kolbe’s outspokenness against the fascism spreading throughout Europe and Edith Stein’s Jewish heritage brought attention to their actions and their faith.  They both were put to death at the Auschwitz concentration camp run by Hitler's Nazi regime – they were two of the more than one million prisoners to die there.  What we receive in the Eucharist is to give us nourishment for our journey – whether it be for Elijah to give him the strength to follow his vocation, or Maximilian Kolbe to speak out against tyranny and oppression, or believers in all walks of life to live out of our lives of discipleship each day.

       I read the results of a survey conducted by the Pew Forum, stating a disturbing trend in religion in America.  It stated that for every convert entering the Church, 6 other Catholics leave, and that now 13% of all Americans describe themselves as “former Catholics.”  How can we reach out to those who have left the Church?  How can we better engage our current Catholic members, especially our youth and young adults?   When Maximilian Kolbe and Edith Stein die martyrs for the faith rather than renounce it in any shape or form, so many others are willingly walking away from the Eucharist and do not receive that new life we have in Christ. 

       Edith Stein – Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross not only received the Eucharist in her life – she lived the Eucharist in so many ways.  This is what she said about that heavenly bread that we receive: "'And the Word became flesh'. That truth became a reality in the manger at Bethlehem. But it was to be fulfilled in yet another form: 'Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood, has eternal life.' The Savior, who knows that we are human beings and will remain human beings who have to struggle daily with weaknesses, comes to our assistance in a truly divine manner. Just as the human body is in need of daily bread, so also does the divine life in us require constant nourishment.  Like Sister Teresa Benedicta, may we all find ways to live out the Eucharist in our lives.