Imitators of Christ; happy people! (Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Cycle B)

Sometimes we find ourselves at the end of our strength and feel that we cannot go on. Sometimes, instead of asking the Lord for strength to go on, we ask the Lord to end our lives. This is not any attempt at suicide, just a plea to the Lord to end the situation that we are experiencing because it seems impossible. Maybe it is impossible from a human point of view. The First reading tells us about Elisha coming to this point—and at that very point, God intervenes in the life of Elisha. Elisha cries out to God and God hears him. So often in our human lives we keep trying to solve our problems and fix our problems and do everything by ourselves, and we don’t cry out to the Lord. We don’t even have to wait until we are at the end of our strength. The time to cry out to the Lord is always right now. In today’s gospel the people begin to murmur against Jesus. They know Jesus and cannot believe that Jesus has come down from heaven. The people are probably not even sure what it means that Jesus has come down from heaven, but for sure it sounds like he is claiming to be more than just another ordinary person in their midst, and that sets them off. How often we also can be harsh on people we know when they try to be more serious about a spiritual life! Or when they try to be good! Or when they try to change a pattern in their lives! Jesus teaches us that He is the way to God. Jesus calls God His father consistently in the Gospels. The people know that Jesus is saying that He Himself is the way to find God. Jesus presents Himself as the bread of life, as a bread that gives eternal life. Jesus tells us that if we eat this bread, we will live for ever. Although for us who are Catholics, this may not sound strange, for people who have never heard this kind of teaching before, it must have sounded totally crazy. Jesus is willing to sound crazy to speak the truth. This is another lesson for us. We can be uneasy speaking the truth if we think that we might suffer because of it or if we think that people will think less of us. Perhaps this Sunday we can hear all of this summarized in the second reading, from the Letter to the Ephesians: Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love. If we do this, we shall be invited to speak truth, to continue walking even when the road is difficult, and to give our lives completely in the service of this God who loves us with tenderness and patience • AE