Turn your Murmurings into Prayers: There is Spiritual Food, When God goes to the Kitchen!
1 Kings 19:4-8; Ephesians 4:30-5:2; John 6:41-51
More than once, God has turned murmurings into an occasion to provide food for the murmurer. When the Israelites murmured in last week’s reading, God gave them bread to eat. When Jonah murmured in Nineveh, he not only received shade over his head, he received consolation as well (Jonah 4). Today, the Prophet Elijah murmured and food was given him to eat. This connection between murmuring and the provision of food is also prominent in our gospel today. Jesus teaches the murmuring crowds about the importance of spiritual food, over against physical food. May be the connection that is not often made between murmuring and food is the fact that murmurings are prayers and can be turned into prayers.
The murmuring of Elijah, in our first reading, was his prayer to God to end his life. He that prayed to God and fire came down from heaven several times (to consume the holocaust and kill the soldiers sent to him), least expected the kind of answer he got for his murmuring prayer: his hunger and exhaustion were replaced by a double ration of food; instead of death, Elijah received life; instead of an end to his life, he received a new mission that required 40 days and nights of walking; what a murmur, what an answer!
In place of an unreserved apology for wanting to give the crowds his flesh to eat and blood to drink, Jesus makes the eating of his body and the drinking of his blood indispensable sources for spiritual food and eternal life. The physical food sought after by the crowd was substituted for by the body and blood of Christ, food for eternal life and immortality. Jesus cooks this food on the cross for everyone to eat. Indeed, Jesus assures that “When I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all people to myself” (John 12:32).
If an angel of the Lord brought the food of the first reading to Elijah from heaven, God himself in Jesus Christ prepares the food of the body and blood of Jesus Christ for all who believe to eat and never to die. If Elijah ate the food brought to him by the angel and he was able to walk for 40 days and night, Elijah would need the chariot of fire from God to lead him into heaven. As for Jesus, he gave his body and blood as food, and he himself would eventually ascend into Heaven. In both instances, when God cooks, the food becomes spiritual and it engenders eternity among those who part-take of it.
As human beings, discouragements come to us in life, whatever our vocations and professions may be. The prophet Elijah’s murmuring, like the groans of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane and on the cross, these are demonstrations of our humanness and the abiding presence of God among us – life has got its ups and downs. When we have done our best, and in the place of appreciation all we get are criticisms and calumny; when our efforts towards holiness is construed as hypocrisy and mere hubris; when the very model we try to be and the holiness we seek appear as mirages to us, no matter how hard we try. One thing is sure, there is eternity after all these, just as there was the chariot of fire to take Elijah home. Yes, the anguish of the flesh sets the spirit free to unite itself with God.
It is important to underscore the “mountain of God,” where the meeting between Elijah and God took place, after the consumption of a spiritual food: “He got up, ate, and drank; then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb” (1 Kings 19:8). For the Jews, the idea of “the mountain of God” speaks to the dwelling place of God high above human dwellings. It recalls the efforts needed to access God, like mountain climbers needing to learn the technic and method of mountain climbing. The opposite of this energy needed to climb up to God is the gospel image of Jesus Christ coming down to his people from on high: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:51). The stamina and energy required to ascend to God is also provided by God himself, through the power of his Spirit dwelling in us.
“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). The body is only essential because it has been adapted to earthly existence, just as the Holy Spirit in us is the guarantee of our immortality. All our limitations, “All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice,” these need conquering in order to optimize the power of the Holy Spirit in us. It is not surprising that the prophet Elijah took flight, when Jezebel swore to kill him. The zeal that sent the priests of Baal and the prophets of Asherah to their untimely graves (1 Kings 18:17-40), the righteousness that shut the doors of heaven and kept away the rains for three and half years, all turned into the stillness of God and the journey to God.
The power of a true Christian is found in the imitation of God: “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” (Ephesians 5:2). That which is of God in us, the Holy Spirit of God, nudges us on towards eternal life. Matthew’s gospel 25 is more explicit, “whatsoever you do to the least of my people, you did it to me”. When we imitate God, then we shall dwell where God dwells. Above all, let us show the compassion of God to all, as Paul suggests in the second reading: “And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ”.
No one among us is incapable of doing good! If God could become the provider of food for his hungry people not to say the cook of his people, what stops you and I from providing for the basic needs of our people, their needs of love, kindness, friendship and hospitality? In a world filled with all kinds of refugees in need of shelter, water, food, and warm clothing: where is your charity and compassion?
Let us conclude by paraphrasing a story from late Fr. Anthony De Mello: a rich English aristocrat heard of a pious monk in far away India, whom he decided to visit. Out in the middle-of-nowhere, he located this monk’s cell. To his greatest surprise, the aristocrat noticed that there were no pieces of furniture in the monk’s cell, no gadgets or modern electrics, so he asked him: “monk, where are your pieces of furniture and gadgets? The monk asked the aristocrat in return, ‘where are yours?’ The aristocrat said, ‘I left them at home, since I am just a visitor to India!’ The monk retorted, ‘I left mine too at home, because I am a guest upon earth!’”
Assignment for the Week:
Could you turn every grumbling moment into prayer mode?