Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Sunday 2nd August 2015)

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

For your Newsletter

Eight weeks from today we will be celebrating a National Eucharistic Congress in Knock, Co. Mayo. This is a nationwide event, and one that involves us here in our parish. Throughout the country today we begin to prepare. We will reflect on the Congress theme ‘Christ our Hope’ found in the readings each Sunday until September 26/27. This week you are invited to think about what hope means to you, and where your hope comes from.

Thoughts for the Homily

The crowd in today’s first reading are perhaps a tad unimpressed by the miracle they were witnessing. They approach Moses with the question ‘what’s that?’. That question can be filled with wonder – a recent u-tube video showed a colour-blind man wearing special glasses that helped him see colours for the first time. He was overcome by the beauty of one colour in particular asking his friends in excitement ‘what’s that???’ And it was the colour purple.  But the same question can be filled with sarcasm, even disgust. You have to wonder what tone accompanied this question when it was put to Moses.

The powdery substance found on the ground when the dew lifted was in fact the raw material for bread – flour. God provided what was needed, but the people had to work with the flour to produce the desired result – bread. Sometimes God does the same in our own lives. We pray often ‘Lord hear us’, and God responds by supplying the raw materials, the ‘stuff’ that we can use to solve the problem, answer the need we or other people have. But we have to be creative, using the little we have to do little or great things in our lives and in the lives of others. 

Bear in mind though, we have an advantage over the crowd of Moses’ day – we know Jesus. Jesus makes it clear that while some thought Moses had worked a great miracle, it was in fact the goodness of God His Father, and our Father, that had given the flour to be bread. But Jesus takes this idea a step further saying that the bread the Father really wanted to give was Jesus himself – Christ our Hope.

Today we are reminded that the promises in the word of God are real, because in a few moments we will in fact and in faith eat the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ. Think about it for a moment: if you were asked today as you return from Communion ‘what’s that?’, what would you say?   

Additional Prayer of the Faithful

We pray for all who will receive Holy Communion today.

May we grow in our certainty that the Body of Christ is alive and life giving, and be always more creative in our outreach in support of others. Lord hear us.

Contibuter: Colette Furlong