Discussion Questions

First Reading

Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15

F1. The Israelites grumbled about the lack of food in the desert. They remembered their abundant pots of animal flesh in Egypt when they were captives. How is your trust in God when God calls you to new journeys in your spiritual life or ministry?

F2. “Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion.” What do you think our directive for natural resources would be? Take only what we need? Share it? Develop new sources of sustainable energy (renewable, as in wind, solar, etc.)?

Second Reading

Ephesians 4:1-6

S1. One translation has Paul calling the Ephesians to a spiritual revolution (drastic change). If you personally were to have a spiritual revolution, what would go and what would stay in your life? Would you add anything new?

S2. Paul urges them to  “ …  put on the new self.” Do you think God is ever finished creating you? Is this something you do (or God does) just once, or do you (or does God) do it continually?

Gospel

John 6:24-35

G1. “Sir, give us this bread always.” They were all starving for the food “that endures for eternal life.” For the first Eucharist Jesus had someone find him a large room. Does the Church need to be a “large room” with open doors to accommodate everyone—the righteous and the sinners, those who have made mistakes and those who have gone astray?

G2. Why does Pope Francis say that our relationship with Christ and with our brothers and sisters is the road to our encounter with God? What was God’s reason for the incarnation?

God made himself flesh. And when we say this, in the Creed, on Christmas Day, on the day of the Annunciation, we kneel to worship this mystery of the incarnation. God made himself flesh and blood; he lowered himself to the point of becoming a man like us. He humbled himself to the extent of burdening himself with our sufferings and sin, and therefore he asks us to seek him not outside of life and history, but in relationship with Christ and with our brothers and sisters. Seeking him in life, in history, in our daily life. And this, brothers and sisters, is the road to the encounter with God: the relationship with Christ and our brothers and sisters.

Angelus for the 18th Sun Ord B
Pope Francis, Aug. 22, 2021

Anne Osdieck

**From Saint Louis University