NOTE: Christ in Our Neighborhood is a parish-based program consisting of small groups that gather in the home weekly to discuss and pray through the upcoming Sunday Mass readings. Find out more at Christ in Our Neighborhood – The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix (dphx.org)
This coming Sunday, we celebrate the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The question the Christ in Our Neighborhood reflection asks us is: How does the Bread of Life support and sustain you on your journey?
Think back to a time when you’ve fasted from food — maybe it was Good Friday or maybe it was before a medical procedure. Remember that feeling of gnawing hunger? That realization that if you had to run a mile, it was going to be exceedingly difficult if not impossible? It’s because your body was out of fuel, out of energy.
It’s a great metaphor for what happens when we are deprived of the Bread of Life, the food from Heaven that sustains us for eternity. We need the grace and life-giving strength of the Eucharist to fuel our journey here on Earth and the spiritual battles we all face. Trials, temptations, tragedies—with the grace of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus running in our veins, we can face all of these with confident trust.
Jesus tells us in Sunday’s Gospel: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
Let’s turn to our Lord and call on all the graces we receive from the Eucharist to fortify us in our earthly sojourn. As the National Eucharistic Congress made clear, we are called to be Eucharistic Missionary Disciples, bringing the love, joy, hope and truth of the Gospel to every corner of our world.
To sign up for our weekly Christ in Our Neighborhood newsletter that has everything you need for your next meeting, visit: https://phoenixdiocese.flocknote.com/CION
