St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church
  • Home
  • Church
    • Mass Times
    • Cluster Calendar of Events
    • Ministry schedule
    • Father's Weekly Message
    • Weekly Bulletin
    • Giving
    • Parish and Finance Councils
    • Knights of Columbus
    • Honorable W. Patrick Donlin Assembly #1205 (4th Degree)
    • Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
  • Religious Education
    • Weekly Religious Ed Message
    • SA Rel Ed Facebook Page
  • Daycare
  • Contact
  • IC Butternut
  • SF Fifield
  • Diocese of Superior
  • Marywood Spirituality Center
Picture
Fr. Shaji Joseph Pazhukkathara

i   am  the  bread  of  life...

8/5/2021

0 Comments

 
​I am the Bread of Life…
 
We are living in a world where people everywhere hunger more for physical or spiritual food or both. Since the COVID-19 pandemic started the entire world changed. We remember a couple of months ago we didn’t have the opportunity to celebrate the Eucharist. There are parts of the world who still don’t have the opportunity to come together as before.
 
This is the third Sunday of the fifth, we reflect on the Eucharist. We started reading from the Gospel of John beginning with  chapter 6, the multiplication of loaves and fish. Jesus fed the hungry in the deserted place. Last Sunday we saw the people were searching for Jesus and Jesus taught them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, he who believes in me shall never thirst (John 6:35).” The continuation of this passage we read this week where we see Jews have a hard time accepting Jesus’ words. They look at him as another hometown boy.
 
The first reading from the Book of First King prepares us to reflect on the Eucharist in the Gospel. In the first reading, Elijah was fleeing from Queen Jezebel, wife of King Ahab. We have to read the previous passage to see the reason for his flee. King Ahab of Israel married a pagan queen, Jezebel. She began to spread pagan worship in Israel. The prophet Elijah challenged 450 of the pagan god Baal’s prophets, defeated them in a  public sacrifice contest, and killed all of them. So the furious Queen Jezebel sent soldiers to kill the         prophet. Elijah's journey into the wilderness and he was sustained by bread and water from an angel. After   eating and drinking, Elijah walked forty days and nights. We see in the Book of Exodus 34:28, “Moses was there with the LORD for forty days and forty nights, without eating any food or drinking any water, and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.” The story of Elijah’s journey to Mount Horeb begins as a flight from danger but takes a surprising turn. The Mount“Horeb” is an alternate name for the Mount “Sinai” where the Lord had appeared to Moses and the Israelites (Exodus19).
 
God’s strengthening of his prophet by the miraculously provided food. Jesus tells us in the Gospel, God strengthens us in our pilgrimage to Heaven by the Bread from Heaven: the Holy Eucharist. The Jews had had time to accept  it, “The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said,
“I am the bread that came down from heaven...” We recall from the book of Exodus 16:2, Number 11:11,    Israelites murmured against Lord and Moses. Here they gathered against Jesus. But Jesus continues to teach them, “I am the bread of life.” Jesus is fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah about the messianic age which we read in Isaiah 54:13. Jesus says in John 6:51, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven;...I will give as my flesh for the life of the world.” Here Jesus talks in the future tense, it is about the Last Supper and the Cross where Jesus gives himself as living bread to a starving world.
 
Jesus is ready to go any distance to bring us closer to the Father. To come into a relationship with the Father, something has to happen. You and I are created in the image of God with gifts of freedom and understanding. We have pulled away from God, and separated ourselves from Him. We need redemption. St. Paul speaks about "the day of redemption" in the second reading. The question is: What does redemption mean? Pope   Benedict puts it this way: "Why does God require the death of his only Son?" (Jesus of Nazareth, part II). We will never fully understand the mystery of redemption, but we can say this: it is not illogical. Pope Benedict writes about the logic of redemption, "God cannot simply ignore man's disobedience and all the evil of history; he cannot treat it as inconsequential or meaningless." In today’s gospel, Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.” To feed the spirit, we need good nutrition. Our journey is like Elijah’s it is not easy, but Jesus gives himself in the Eucharist to nourish us and make us ready for the journey.
 
Thank you! Thank you to everyone who helped to set up the tent and sell the ice cream and everyone who enjoyed ice cream at our stand during the Flambeau Rama. Thank you Lemmer family for the freezer. We made a $ 1475.00 profit. Thank you, everyone! Fr. Shaji
 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    September 2017
    August 2017

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Church
    • Mass Times
    • Cluster Calendar of Events
    • Ministry schedule
    • Father's Weekly Message
    • Weekly Bulletin
    • Giving
    • Parish and Finance Councils
    • Knights of Columbus
    • Honorable W. Patrick Donlin Assembly #1205 (4th Degree)
    • Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
  • Religious Education
    • Weekly Religious Ed Message
    • SA Rel Ed Facebook Page
  • Daycare
  • Contact
  • IC Butternut
  • SF Fifield
  • Diocese of Superior
  • Marywood Spirituality Center