“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.”  St. Paul gets to the heart of our happiness in pointing out where so much of our misery comes from.  It comes from within ourselves.  It comes from our negativity, that evil seed of discontent that is sown within us by the devil.  We are our own worst enemy.  How often do our poor attitudes, our doubts, our anxieties and our lack of faith grieve the Holy Spirit?  God knows that we are capable of greatness, of glory and of true beauty but so often we make ourselves small and ugly by our grumbling and our complaining.  When we brood upon darkness and negativity within ourselves we give birth to anger, hatred, bitterness, shouting, fury, reviling and all sorts of malice.  More and more we see people explode in great acts of violence against others. Often their friends and family, those who thought that they knew the person well, wonder what causes them to perpetrate such evil acts.  Most often it is not something that is visible to others from the outside because friends and neighbors are shocked and surprised by the sudden violence.  It is something that lies hidden within, an evil presence, a demon that possesses a person and makes them do horrible things.  This inner darkness is born from brooding on negativity and feeding the demon within.  When we feed ourselves on our misery, our doubts, our anxieties and our fears then we are nurturing the evil spirit within.  

    Our readings today illustrate the effects of feeding ourselves on the bread of bitterness, self-pity and negativity.  In our first reading we see Elijah complaining to God about the difficulties of living as a prophet in Israel.  His negativity leads to his giving up and wishing for death.  An angel of God shows up and gives him new bread to eat, and the fresh water of life to drink that strengthens him for the journey that he has to make through the desert of his trials.  The angel exhorts him to get up out of his self-pity and make the journey through the desert of his misery and come to the mountain of God where he can encounter God’s presence in a fresh breeze that breathes a new Spirit into him.  In the gospel we hear the people murmuring against the teaching of Jesus, grumbling about the difficulty of accepting his Word and being fed on the Bread of Life that he has to offer.  This murmuring, grumbling and complaining will lead many of his disciples to depart from his presence and return to a fruitless life.  How often have we heard of people “disaffiliating” themselves from the Church because they do not understand the teaching of Jesus in the Church.  If we listen to the Words of Jesus and feed ourselves on the Bread of Life that he offers then we will come to Jesus and receive eternal life.  Jesus will become an internal fountain of living water and life that will strengthen us for the journey we must make through the difficulties of this life.  If we listen to the murmuring and the grumblings of others in the secular world rather than the words and teaching of Jesus then we will end up walking away from eternal life.  The challenge that the gospel offers us today is whether we will choose to be “taught by God” in our life or whether we will be taught by the contrary words of secularism, subjectivism, scientism and the other “isms” that lead us away from our faith, from Jesus and ultimately from eternal life.  Jesus assures us, “Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.  Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father.  Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.” (Jn 6,45ff)

    In my experience of ministry and of the journey of faith that Jesus calls us to walk with him, there is nothing more destructive of our spiritual life and our call to discipleship than the negativity of those who murmur, complain and grumble against the challenges of discipleship.  Even within the Christian community this grumbling and complaining can lead to all kinds of malice and evil intentions.  As St. Paul points out, this behavior grieves the Holy Spirit of God.  When we choose to feed our malcontent and eat our bitterness we are sowing the seeds of our own destruction.  Those who choose to listen to the words of God and be imitators of God as his holy children, living in love and feeding themselves on the Bread of Life that Jesus offers us as “bread from heaven” can accomplish great things to the glory of God and they will “live forever”.

    Make it your life’s aim to never grieve the Holy Spirit of God but to delight God by offering your life as a “fragrant aroma” of holiness, humility and compassion.  Eat the Bread of Life in the Eucharist and feed the Spirit of gentleness and peace within you so that you may come to Jesus and live in God’s presence forever.  This is the only path to true joy and happiness in this life and in the eternal life to come.