Fr. Michael Williams

About a hundred years ago, a husband and wife went as two young students to the Sorbonne University in Paris. They were searching for meaning and truth. They were told by their professors that searching for meaning and truth was futile because it does not exist. This young couple decided that they might as well take their own lives. But before they could do this, they providentially met Leon Bloy, a Christian thinker. He told them to go home and pray. They told him they didn’t believe in God so there was no point. Leon Bloy told them, ‘I don’t care what you believe or do not believe. Go home and pray’. Thinking they had nothing to lose they went home and tried to pray. They came to know, and to believe, and were baptised. The man was called Jacques Maritain who went on to become the greatest Catholic philosopher of the twentieth century.

Elijah the Prophet also showed desperation and called out to God. Elijah had wished that he was dead and prayed, “Lord, I have had enough. Take my life”. But as was the case with Mr and Mrs Jacques Maritain, the Lord listened and responded. The book of Kings tells us that, “An angel touched [the exhausted Elijah] and said, ‘Get up and eat’…And the angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, ‘Get up and eat, or the journey will be too long for you’”. In desperation Elijah cried out to God and was helped and strengthened.

When we open our hearts to God, only then He can then respond and act in our lives. Jacques Maritain and his wife, and Elijah, had reached the end of their tethers. Their brokenness led them to call out to the Lord, who could then transform their situations. Hearts that are not broken cannot allow the grace of God to act in them. A hardened heart will not allow the grace of God to flow through it. A person who is totally self sufficient, think they don’t need the Lord, so they don’t call out to Him. How can He help them if they don’t turn to Him. God respects our freedom too much to force Himself upon us.

In the gospel we heard today some of the Jews thought they did not need Christ. St John’s gospel tells us that “some of the Jews were complaining about Jesus because He had said, ‘I am the Bread that came down from heaven’”. They were complaining about Him, rather than turning toward Him. Some people say today that God does not listen or care, and they stay in bed, rather than go to Mass and receive Jesus, the Bread of Life. How can God help someone if they cannot be bothered with Him?

Jesus, the Bread of Life, gives Himself “for the life of the world”, as food for the journey. Let us pray that more and more people will turn to Him for help, when they are weighed down by life’s burdens. Because as the psalmist says, “I sought the Lord and He answered me, from all my terrors He set me free”. Ultimately, the Lord wants to help. Let us open our hearts to Him, and pray that others will open their hearts to Him “[because] they are happy who seek refuge in Him”.