FranciscanMedia.org | Sunday Soundbites | 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sunday Soundbites

Sunday Soundbites is a weekly, 90-second radio homily based on the Sunday readings, written and read by Fr. Greg Friedman, O.F.M. Sunday Soundbites is also heard on Catholic radio stations around the country.

Program for Sunday, August 12, 2012
(19th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

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Transcript

1 Kgs 19:4-8
Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Eph 4:30--5:2
Jn 6:41-51

Hello, I’m Franciscan Father Greg Friedman, with the "Sunday Soundbite" for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Meals are more than a stop to refuel our bodies. They can be a real art, a time to deepen relationships. We prepare the food carefully, set the table, cultivate good manners and good conversation. Behind the simple act of eating is a way to renew the human relationships which bring us to the table in the first place.

Today we continue our five-week look at the sixth chapter of John, where Jesus is portrayed as the "Bread of Life." In that chapter, people ask him for a sign, like the manna in the desert of Moses' time. Jesus' reply? He himself is the "bread of life."

In today’s Gospel the people “murmur" and accuse Jesus of arrogance—or worse. Jesus replies that he has come to give them his "flesh for the life of the world." He offers them the very life of God, a life that will enable them to live forever.

Jesus' words shock his hearers. To us, the words are familiar. We believe that in the Eucharist we celebrate each Sunday is the crucified and risen Jesus Christ himself, drawing us to himself. And yet how easy it is to take all this for granted, to make Sunday Mass just something else we do. Let's allow this summer meditation on the Bread of Life to renew our faith and our enthusiastic response to Christ.

I’m Father Greg Friedman with the "Sunday Soundbite" for St. Anthony Messenger Press, on the Web at FranciscanRadio.org.

Meet Father Greg Friedman

Franciscan Father Greg Friedman, O.F.M., is creative director with the Media Production Team at Franciscan Media. He also hosts American Catholic Radio each week, and produces videos for www.AmericanCatholic.org, including the "Two-Minute Take." Father Greg wrote and directed Assisi Pilgrimage: Walking in Faith with Francis and Clare, which appeared on ABC-TV stations nationwide. He also produced the popular faith-formation series Catholic Update Video, used in parishes around the U.S. He currently serves as pastor of St. Francis Seraph Parish, located in the inner-city neighborhood of "Over-the-Rhine" in Cincinnati, Ohio. You can contact him at letters@franciscanradio.org.

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