Week 19 Cycle B Homilies

Spiritual Food by Bishop Robert Barron

1st Kings – read it this week, it’s adventurous and fast. Elijah is fighting the priests of baal and kills them on Mount Carmel. Setting is that Elijah has the army & police force of Queen Jezebel after him. Elijah sits down and asks for death: “O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” Remember the times in your life when you’ve felt this way. An angel touched him and ordered him to eat & then again. Strengthened by this food he made his way to the mountain of God at Horeb. Watch for the “touch of an angel”, a messenger, at your darkest times, to give us the sustenance we need.

Focus now on the theme of spiritual food.

Appendicitis surgery example – no food for 3 days, so weak.

Hitting the wall biking in France example.

How fragile and dependent we are on food. Example to parallel spiritual health & spiritual eating. We know there’s a dimension of our being beyond the merely physical. The soul is something greater than the body. The dimension that links the whole of us to the eternal.

Don’t feed the soul right – it will become unhealthy, lethargic, dead.

So many people feel lost & unsure of where they are going. What’s the problem? It’s not rocket science. The problem is that they are not feeding their souls.

1st recommendation = prayer. To pray is to raise the mind and heart to God. How do you pray? The Jesus prayer. Pray it 500 times. Now do it every day for the rest of your life. The soul likes to go slow.

2nd recommendation = do some serious theological & spiritual reading. The soul is hungry for deeper stuff.

3rd recommendation = engage in the corporal works of mercy. The soul is hungry for the serious stuff. Mercy. Engage in the works of mercy. Your soul will be fed.

4th recommendation = The Eucharist = you need to eat & drink the Eucharist.