Year B
Discover the deeper meaning and connections found in this week's readings, through these great commentaries written by our priests.
Explore this week's readings and hear what God is saying to us through His Word.
Find out more about how we can mark this special day in our liturgy.
See our music recommendations for the liturgy.
1 Kings 19:4-8
Exhausted following his triumphant confrontation with the prophets of Baal, Elijah goes into the wilderness, full of feelings of inadequacy, and ready to die. But God does not forget him. Food is provided, and Elijah walks for forty days and forty nights to the mountain of Horeb where Moses had met with God.
Ephesians 4:30-5:2
Paul addresses the whole Church as the Temple of the Holy Spirit. He warns the community not to be negative in their relationships. Why? Because they are the children of God loved by him.
John 6:41-51
For the first time in this episode, the crowd become hostile to Jesus. They are murmuring and complaining because Jesus has spoken of himself as "the bread that came down from heaven." Jesus is very direct in his response -"Stop complaining." Jesus speaks of his intimate relationship with the Father, and reiterates that he is "the bread of life" - "the living bread" - "the bread of eternal life."
All three readings begin with a negative element. Elijah has had enough and wants to die. Paul warns the community against negative behaviour - grudges, bad temper, name calling and spitefulness. And the Gospel opens with murmuring and complaining.
How easy it is for us to fall into a similar rut of negativity.
But God is with us. He loves us and feeds us with Christ, the living bread. Whatever our situation, as we responded to the psalm, we are invited to "taste and see that the Lord is good."
We are in the Summer months of Year B, when we take a break from Mark’s Gospel and listen to chapter 6 of St John’s Gospel. This chapter is sometimes called the “Bread of Life” section. We hear it over five consecutive Sundays. Note also that all five of the accompanying First Readings are about food, as are the Responsorial Psalms: e.g. “Taste and See”, which is the response to three consecutive Sundays where Psalm 33 is recited/sung. This might be a good time to have the same Psalm setting over those 3 weeks, unless your musicians have taken August off, of course.
These five Sundays are a good opportunity to revisit the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist and the Mass found in CCC para.132-149. In the parish newsletter, perhaps we might offer an ongoing catechesis on the shape and meaning of the Mass. Themes for exploration might include some of the following:
Covenant, Passover, Eucharist
The Real Presence
The liturgical action of taking, thanking, breaking, giving
The Eucharist as source and summit of liturgical life
The Eucharist as sacred meal, holy sacrifice, and eschatological banquet
Today is the 3rd Sunday, where tensions between Jesus and the crowd are rising over his self-identification as “the living bread that has come down from heaven”. As Catholics, we inevitably read back into the text our understanding of the Eucharist but what would Jesus’ words have felt like to his hearers? Shocking? Baffling? Is that part of Jesus’ intention? If so, why?
Prayers of the Faithful
For the Church – that she may express its communion with Christ by a constant ministry of giving mercy.
For peace and love within the community – let us forgive each other from our hearts, and never forget that those who share the Lord’s table should always live in mutual, loving peace.
For those who are without food and drink – may the peoples of the world come to their aid in the sufferings they endure and may we assist them by our prayers and generous material help.
These hymns have been chosen from the Laudate Hymnbook
614 I am the living bread
629 I am the bread of life
636 I received the living God
748 Unless a grain of wheat
831 In Christ there is no east nor west
Do you have questions about the liturgy and how we are called to participate in it? Explore how the Church councils, saints, and popes have answered this key question and many more.
Every movement of the Mass is rich in meaning but we can become over-familiar with it. Rediscover the Mass and explore how it relates to the Exodus story, where many of its rituals come from, and how it makes Jesus present to us today.
