Discussion Questions

First Reading

1 Kings 19:4-8

F1. In this reading, sometimes we are Elijah and sometimes we are the hearth cake. Think of times in your life when you wanted to cry, “enough” and you could have used some help from somewhere. Did help come? How?

F2. God sent help to Elijah in the form of an angel. What kind of help do you think God would send today? Name some ways you can be the “hearth cake” for a someone or something in need. For the environment, to recycle? A new energy source? For the needy, dinner? Helping to change the system? A kind word for the depressed?

Second Reading

Ephesians 4:30-5:2

S1. Do you think you could get better at “being an imitator of God?” How? Is it more likely to happen all at once because you want it to, or a little at a time because you work at letting God into you? If you were going to try for this, where would you start?

S2. Would you call people, as did Dorothy Day, Nelson Mandela, Daniel Berrigan, SJ, “imitators of God”? Do you know any people like that now? What kinds of things did/do they do? Do they transform the world in some small way?

Gospel

John 6:41-51

G1. The crowd murmured when Jesus said he was the bread that came down from heaven. They knew his mother and father: how did this impact their willingness to believe him? Is it easy to accept a “prophet” [one who speaks for God] in your own circle of acquaintances? Explain.

G2. “ … the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” Jesus does this because he loves us. According to Pope Francis’ homily below, what does Jesus’ real presence invite us to do? Does he continue to give his flesh for the life of the world and transform it now through us?

Finally, the Eucharistic bread is the real presence. This speaks to us of a God who is not distant, who is not jealous, but close and in solidarity with humanity; a God who does not abandon us but always seeks, waits for, and accompanies us, even to the point of placing himself, helpless, into our hands. And his real presence also invites us to be close to our brothers and sisters wherever love calls us.

Brothers and sisters, our world desperately needs this bread, with its fragrance and aroma, which knows about gratitude, freedom and closeness! Every day we see too many streets that were once filled with the smell of freshly baked bread, but are now reduced to rubble by war, selfishness and indifference! We urgently need to bring back to our world the good, fresh aroma of the bread of love, to continue tirelessly to hope and rebuild what hatred destroys.

Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ
Pope Francis Homily
June 2, 2024

Anne Osdieck
 

**From Saint Louis University