Provision

In our readings this weekend, there are many juxtapositions between life and death. We open with our first readings about the Prophet Elijah who is praying for death. He is afraid for his life and weary from his time on the road running away from danger.   This is part of a series where the prophet needs to rely on the hospitality of another for his sustenance and strength. In this passage, an angel ministers to him, giving him food, not once, but twice in order to strengthen him for the journey ahead: walking 40 days and nights to the same mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments. Elijah goes from despondency to strength from the food he eats.

Our Gospel from John continues the Bread of Life discourse we have been hearing the last few weeks. Here, we see that the Jews are complaining about Jesus, very confused about what He is saying about His connection with God. They are not just being catty or just close-minded – what Jesus is saying is challenging everything they have come to know about God and God’s relationship with us. That God would be so close to them, so connected to Jesus was mind-blowing. It was much easier to dismiss Jesus than it was to actually consider God’s closeness to them. In this passage, we see some wonderful connections for our Trinitarian understanding of the relationship between the Father and the Son. We also get more juxtapositions between life and death and between the bread that is regular food and the bread of life that is spiritual food. Jesus makes intentional connections between the bread that He will give and His own death, His very own flesh and blood – His whole self that will be given for the life of the world.

There is a beautiful rite in the Catholic Church that is often connected to the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. It is someone’s last Eucharist. We call is viaticum, translated from Latin meaning “provision for a journey”. I think it is a beautiful way to think about the Eucharist for us all. It is our very sustenance, food for the journey. For the one dying, it is a way for them to not die alone, but to be intimately connected with Christ and Christ’s own suffering and death. It is the sustenance needed for their final journey, from this life into eternal life. For those living, the Eucharist is food for our continued journeys, the sustenance, the food we need to continue on with Christ in this life. Whether it is your last Eucharist or not, may we come to see our need and reliance on this bread that is living bread, on this bread that is for the life of the world, on this bread that is our provision for a journey. It is truly our intimate connection with Christ.

How God can be so very close to us really is mind-blowing.