This Sunday’s Readings:
1 Kings 19:4–8
Psalm 34:2–3, 4–5, 6–7, 8–9 (℟ 9a)
Ephesians 4:30–5:2
John 6:41–51
A LITTLE BIT OF KNOWLEDGE IS A DANGEROUS THING. The knowledge itself is not dangerous—we should always strive to grow in knowledge—but relying on our knowledge alone is. That’s how today’s Gospel begins, with the insiders thinking they know everything about who Jesus is. And Jesus tries to tell them that the only way to really know him is to let go of their need to control and be right about their preconceptions. They need to allow space for God (and for others) to teach them.
Listen to the Father, learn from him, and then you will know Christ. Sounds simple. But how often do we let our pessimism stop us from seeing Jesus as more than we can imagine? How often are we certain we have the full truth and demonize anyone who doesn’t agree? Just look at how awful human beings can be to one another, and we, too, might give up on the world and cry with Elijah, “This is enough, O Lord!” But when we allow space for the possibility of a different perspective than ours, God can teach us something new. God knows us better than we know ourselves and feeds us with the living bread so that we may know all that can be possible in Christ.
–Diana Macalintal
Suggested Music
Choral Suggestions:
MYSTAGOGY MOMENT:
“He’s opened doors for me, doors that I couldn’t see.”
Most of us have been there. Feeling lost, uncertain, without direction. We can’t see the path ahead, let alone what we’re going to encounter as we walk it and what we are going to find at our destination. But then, bam, we end up somewhere unexpected, but somewhere good. Really good. Like so much of our faith, it’s in seeming contradictions and juxtapositions where truth is found. Our human senses may let us down, but God doesn’t. Jesus doesn’t. In the Eucharist, we partake of Christ’s body (we taste) and a whole new world comes into clearer view (we see).
–Jennifer Odegard
More choral suggestions for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time…
Al Partir el Pan/When We Break This Bread Pedro Rubalcava Two- or Three-part choir, cantor, assembly, 2 trumpets, 2 violins, guitar, keyboard 012642
Bread of Heaven Kathleen Demny SATB, cantor, assembly, 2 C instruments, guitar, keyboard 008833
Concertato on ST. THOMAS: Tantum Ergo Arr. Charles Thatcher SATB, descant, assembly, flute, oboe, trumpet, organ 008837
Draw Us in the Spirit’s Tether Percy Dearmer & Bob Moore SAB, descant, keyboard 008939
Gusten y Vean: Salmo 34/33 (bilingual) Pedro Rubalcava SATB, cantor, assembly, guitar, piano 012676
I Am the Bread of Life Tom Kaczmarek Three-part choir, cantor, assembly, 2 C instruments, guitar, keyboard 008360
Pan del Cielo/Bread of Heaven Eleazar Cortés, Arr. Jeffrey Honoré & Peter Kolar Two-part choir, cantor, assembly, opt. marimba, guitar, keyboard 012643
Taste and See Charles Conley SAB, cantor, assembly, piano, flute G-4065
Taste and See Francis Patrick O’Brien SATB, cantor, assembly, piano G-3775
Taste and See James Moore SATB, cantor, assembly, piano, guitar G-5338
Taste and See Nicholas Palmer SATB, cantor, assembly, organ G-9131
Taste and See Richard Proulx SATB, cantor, assembly, organ G-4471
Taste and See James Chepponis SATB, cantor, assembly, piano, guitar, 2 C instruments G-5232
You Have Given Them Bread from Heaven Brett C. Ballard SAB, cantor, assembly, guitar, keyboard 008359