19TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
1 Kgs 19:4-8/Eph 4:30—5:2/Jn 6:41-51 (116)

The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven," and they said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus answered and said to them, "Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. 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."

Spiritual Reflection: There are mythologies and philosophies galore—both ancient and modern—that speak of God needing the universe or benefiting from it in some fashion, but Catholic theology has always repudiated these approaches and affirmed God’s total self-sufficiency.

Spiritual Questions:

1. How does it make you feel to know that God does not need anything from you but wants to give you Himself?
2. 2. If God does not need anything from us, does bargaining with him really work?
3. Would you rather be with someone who had to be with you or with someone who chose to be with you out of love? 
4. God saved us not because He had to but because He wanted to. What does this truth speak to your heart?
5. Can you be self-sufficient and loving at the same time?