Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 11, 2024 - 1 Kings 19:4-8; Ephesians 4:30-5:2; John 6:41-51
Bonaventure Finnbarr Broderick, a fine Irish name, was ordained a Catholic priest in 1885 - so, 135 years ago - for the Diocese of Connecticut. There was only one back then; only one Diocese of Connecticut. And, after a few years teaching in the seminary, was sent by his bishop to be the Secretary of the Bishop of Cuba. Cuba, at that time, was a United States Protectorate and we had Catholic parishes there that were cared for by priests from the Diocese of Connecticut. After a couple of years in Cuba, he helped the Cuban people in their fight to gain independence from the United States and he was made the Auxiliary Bishop to the Bishop of Cuba. And then something happened. We don’t know what exactly what it was that happened, but he quarreled with Pope Pius X over some issue and Pope Pius X threw him out of office. [Remember, Pius X is a saint, now.] He didn’t excommunicate him. He didn’t defrock him. He didn’t suspend him. He just took away his job and didn’t give him another one.
And so, humiliated and disgraced, Bonaventure Finnbarr Broderick came back home to the United States. And he settled himself in the little village of Millbrook, New York, which was really a tiny village back then. He bought himself a gas station. And, for 39 years, he ran that gas station.
And then, one day in 1939, the newly appointed Archbishop of New York, Francis Spellman, was up in Dutchess County for some reason. [Now, when Spellman was appointed Archbishop of New York, most of the priests of New York were not the least bit happy with the appointment. They wanted a New York priest to be appointed their Archbishop and Spellman didn’t do much to discourage their disappointment because he was a prickly sort of fellow.] So, he’s up in Dutchess County for something, and on his way home he says to the chauffeur, “How are we doing on gas?” And the chauffeur says, “Eh, we can get home on what I’ve got, but I could take some more.” He said, “I want you to go to a gas station in Millbrook.” And the chauffeur says, “Millbrook’s not on our way home, we’d have to detour. And he says, “I know. But go there anyway. Go to that gas station.”
So, they get to the gas station, and this guy comes out and the chauffeur says, “Fill ‘er up. Check under the hood.” While he’s doing that, Spellman gets out of the rear of the limousine and comes around to the man pumping gas, and kneels down in front of him, and grabs the hand that’s holding the hose, and kisses the hand and says, “My brother bishop, please come home.”
And after all that time, filled with anger and resentment and hurt, this man comes home and is given a job in the Chancery that’s not a lot of work to do, but has prestige attached to it. He is made the Vicar for Religious. And so, he’s always available for state occasions. And he lives in the Cathedral Rectory with the Archbishop. And dies a respected member of the New York clergy.
I tell you that story so we will understand better the first reading. The first reading has a beginning that we didn’t hear and an end that we didn’t hear. It begins with a confrontation between Elijah and the priests of the idol, Baal. Now why is there a confrontation? Because the Jewish king, Ahab, had done the unthinkable, and married a Pagan woman named Jezebel. Queen Jezebel was a worshipper of Baal. And so, she erected temples to Baal all through the Palestinian area. And that offended the Jewish people.
And Elijah says, “Let’s have a contest. Your priests offer a sacrifice. I’ll offer a sacrifice. We’ll each pray to our god to send fire down to consume the sacrifice. Whoever's god answers, that’s the real god. So, needless to say, nothing happened when they prayed to Baal. But Elijah said a simple prayer to God and sat down and waited, and sure enough, fire came down and consumed the animal. That should have been enough for Elijah but, no.
Flush with victory, he ordered all 500 priests of Baal to be beheaded. Literally, overkill. As a result, Jezebel ordered that Elijah be executed. And Elijah ran for his life. And that’s where we pick up the story this morning.
He is running for his life into the desert. He flops down under a tree and says, “I’ve had enough. God, take my life. I no longer deserve to live. I am no better than my fathers.” What a strange thing to say. What he’s saying is that, in the history of Israel, whenever the Israelite people have been successful in battle because of their belief in Yahweh God, they have eventually gone too far and committed murder. And he has just done the same thing. He’s gone too far and committed murder. And he’s beside himself with guilt and anger and grief.
Angel of God comes and wakes him up and says, “Look, have something to eat, get over it.” He goes back to sleep. The angel wakes him a second time and says, “Listen I said eat something. Otherwise, you will not have strength enough for the rest of your journey. You’ve got farther to go.”
So, he eats, and he goes for forty days more. Forty days is a symbolic number of days in Jewish numerology. It’s a time of preparation, getting ready, and learning. So, after forty more days, Elijah arrives at the mountain, Horeb, the same place where Moses had had an encounter with Yahweh God. And so, he expects he’s going to have the same great experience. So, when a storm comes along, he goes out and stands in the wind, and nothing happens. Then there’s an earthquake and nothing happens. There’s fire and everything; nothing happens. And finally, there’s a small whispering sound. Elijah covers his face and begins to cry because he’s gotten it all wrong again. God is not in might. God is in weakness. And then God speaks to him and says, “Listen, Elijah, I called you for a purpose and your final purpose in life is to preach to a people who will not accept your preaching. You will be rejected for the rest of your life by the very people whom you came to serve. That’s your mission.”
Many of us have had experiences in our lives - some caused by ourselves, some caused by other people - that have caused us to be angry and bitter and grief stricken. And sometimes we get stuck on go. But Jesus says to us, “I, I am the bread, the food, of life. The Eucharist is not a thing that exists for its own sake. It is a food that exists for the journey. I am your food. You can’t go any further, sometimes, without me. But come, and eat, and take the next step. However long it takes, there is more for you to do.”
However long or short our life's journey, we walk it to the end, fed every day with the bread of life. Be like good old Bonaventure Finnbarr Broderick.