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Word To Life
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Sunday Scripture Readings, Aug. 2, 2009
By Sharon K. Perkins
Catholic News Service
August 2, Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle B Readings:
1) Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15
Psalm 78:3-4, 23-25, 54
2) Ephesians 4:17, 20-24
Gospel: John 6:24-35
We're currently in the process of relocating from one state to another. Although the move is ultimately good for our family, there are so many variables that can affect its timing and success, and so much preparatory work to do that there are days when staying put seems much more attractive. Ultimately, when emptied of my need for certainty, I am reminded in prayer that the better option is to take things one day at a time and trust in God's providence to lead us to our new home and a new life.
In today's reading from Exodus the grumbling Israelite community, hungry for bread and certainty, looked longingly to their former lives in Egypt. From their perspective, the "bread from heaven" was simply a way to fill their empty bellies. From God's perspective, the provision of manna, and the specific instruction to gather only what was needed for that day, was a "testing" -- a purification and expansion of their faith -- so that he could lead them forward to their new land.
Writing hundreds of years later to the Ephesians, St. Paul exhorts that they too, as believers in Christ, "should put away the old self of your former way of life." But putting on the "new self" required that they first empty themselves of their old corrupt desires and renew their minds.
In today's Gospel Jesus promises to give himself as the true, imperishable "bread of heaven," a new bread that gives "life to the world." However, in order to receive this bread, his disciples must empty themselves of their own preconceived notions and "believe in the one God has sent."
Not everyone is destined to relocate from one geographic area to another. But as followers of Jesus, we are persons always on the move, called to empty ourselves of past unbelief and to trust that the same God who leads us to our new selves is the one who sustains us with the bread that lasts forever.
QUESTIONS:
To what new thing is God calling you? Of what must you "empty yourself" in order to be filled with the bread of life?
SCRIPTURE TO BE ILLUSTRATED:
"Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion" (Exodus 16:4).
END
Copyright © 2009 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS Word To Life column may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service.
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