Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish

FR MICHAEL BIBLICAL IMAGERY

(Fr Michael Boakye Yeboah: Vice Rector of St Gregory Seminary, Kumasi-Ghana)

IMMUNITY

            Immunity can simply be defined as the quality or state of being immune; particularly a condition of being able to resist a particular disease especially through preventing development of a pathogenic microorganism or by counteracting the effects of its products.

            The search for “immunity” has become a crazy quest especially in this era of the Covid-19 pandemic. Scientists are of the view that some people may have at least a degree of preexisting immunity to the new virus. Immunity is the quest of most people who are health conscious (including me); but what I seek most is spiritual immunity and today’s readings seem to direct us on that path.

            In medicine people get immune against some killer diseases but Christians need immunity against agents of the forces of darkness and some persons or a group of persons. For one to get a clearer picture of the first reading, one has to start reading from   1 Kings 18:20ff to today’s first reading 1 Kings 19:4-8. In today’s text we are told that Elijah asked God that he might die. What was chasing the great and powerful prophet of all time to request death as a solution. Apparently, Elijah entered into a “spiritual competition” with four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal to known whose God/god is powerful and answer prayers. When the competition ended, Elijah came out victorious and ordered the people to seize the prophets of Baal and kill them all. When Jezebel an evil Queen got wind of what Elijah had done, she went after the life of Elijah. The threat from Jezebel was so terrible that in today’s first reading Elijah begs God to take his life before Jezebel lay hands on him. But God sent an Angel to bring Elijah bread from heaven that will immune Elijah from the evil threats of Jezebel.

            That bread that the Angel brought to Elijah is a marvelous Old Testament prefiguration of the Eucharist. The Eucharist, which is Jesus Christ himself; is the only “dose” one needs to immunize himself/herself against the forces of darkness. We are told that when Elijah ate that bread his strength was renewed and he was not afraid of Jezebel again, neither could Jezebel lay hands on him or direct any threat. What the food of God does is that it empowers the Catholic Christian to turn an end into a new beginning. The one who partakes in the Eucharist ends the life of sin and begin a new life of grace in Christ; and if Christ is in us who can be against us? This is one’s sure immunity.

            In life a Christian does not only need to be immune against satanic agents but also some “physical person” at times people very close. In today’s Gospel Jesus faced attack from his own town folks in Nazareth. They took offense that Jesus referred to himself as the “Bread of Life.” Why did the people take offense? Simply because they knew him as one of them. There were some family members and townsfolk who just didn’t want one of them to succeed. If they are all poor, all of them should remain poor; if they are all known as non-entities, they want all of them to remain like that for life. Per grace if one is blessed with a better life some come after him/her with attacks simply because that one of them can succeed in life. Nazareth was known as a place that nothing good could emerge from and so the elders of the town wanted to maintain that status quo. This attitude has been the Achilles’ heel of many a developing nation and at times it can be worse among us who call ourselves Christians.

            But Jesus assures us that whoever eats the Eucharist will be preserved and protected, in fact you are immune from people who seek to destroy you. Jesus says “The Bread I will give you is my flesh; I give it for the life of the world.” If Christ gives life who can take life from you – you are immune.

            In the second reading, Paul once more draws out the implications for Christians of the wonder of the Eucharist. Just as Christ, out of love, “offered himself up as a sacrifice”, so his Eucharistic attitude must become the motif of Christian life, a life lived in imitation of God’s love, an imitation that can only consist in mutual love, compassion, and forgiveness. Through these the “beloved children of God” become for each other a sort of Eucharistic nourishment for the journey – something like food that unexpectedly materializes for our neighbours in the middle of the desert of our lives, like Elijah’s piece of bread and jar of water. Please place your trust in Jesus and you will receive immunity.