19TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, B

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NO ROOM FOR DEPRESSION




When people are depressed there are two actions that they normally choose. Some people refuse to eat. They starve themselves to death, thinking that it is better to die than to face the troubles of life. Others indulge in food, stuffing into their bodies huge quantities of hams, ice cream, chocolates, wine, or beer.

Both actions are injurious.  Those who refuse to eat gradually weaken and get sick.  Those who indulge in food usually take junk food, small on nutrition. They may grow big yet they are easy victim to sudden illness.

Elijah is one depressed person as we see in the first reading today. Faced with great problems, insurmountable burdens and towering concerns, he chooses the first action described earlier. He just wants to lie down and die quietly. He will not eat. He will not move about.

But God is an expert on the human heart. He knows what troubles each one of us. No pain, no hardship is beyond his watchful gaze. The Lord sends an angel to the prophet to motivate him to move on. More than that, the Lord gives Elijah the food he needs to regain his strength, his motivation, his courage.

Many of us today are like Elijah, buried under a deluge of difficulties too great for our powers. We think we cannot survive, so we simply want to give up. We wish we were dead, and in fact, act as if we already were.

In these moments, the Lord comes to visit us with his word of encouragement to rebuild our shattered hope. But he has something more for us than words – food.  This is the food that gives eternal life, the food that makes this life worth living in spite of the challenges; the food that prepares us for the full and perfect life that awaits us at the end of the road.

We need this food. We need Jesus, the Bread of Life. With him, receiving him, eating his Body and drinking his Blood in the Eucharist, we will not die!  Yes, our dreams will not die. Our hope will not die! Our future will not die!  As he lives, so too, willl we live and conquer in this life and in the next.

How beautiful is the gospel today, reminding us what a treasure we have in the Eucharist, in every Mass we celebrate. As we receive Jesus we are filled with new strength as Elijah was. We reach our destiny as Elijah reached Mt. Horeb.

Depressed? Go to Jesus and eat!


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