Today’s gospel takes up right where last Sunday’s left off. After
feeding a vast crowd of five-thousand with five barley loaves and a
couple of fish, Jesus quietly slips away from the crowds, aware that
they would try to make him king. But once they realize that he has gone,
they go looking for him. No surprise there. If Jesus could work a wonder
like that, what else might he be able to do? For them. Maybe liberate
them from the hated rule of the Romans?
So, they get into boats and go searching for
Jesus, and when they manage to track him down, Jesus tells them that
their motives for seeking him are all wrong. They’re more into magic
than mystery. They’ve had a ‘quick fix,’ if you will: their bellies have
been filled with bread – free bread, lots of it - “food that perishes,”
Jesus calls it. And he tells them that what they should really be
looking for is a more lasting kind of bread, bread that only he can give
them, bread that “endures for eternal life,” bread that is Himself. In
other words, he’s challenging them to get beyond the ‘what’s in it for
me?’ mentality and, instead, to seek a personal relationship with him,
to let him be the one to satisfy their truest hungers and deepest
thirsts.
And this sets the stage for a contentious
exchange between the people and Jesus. If they’re going to place their
faith in him, they tell him, they want some kind of sign from him. As if
the wondrous multiplication of the loaves and fish wasn’t sign enough!
But no, they throw Moses in his face. Moses gave us bread from heaven,
they tell him – recalling the mysterious manna that we heard about in
today’s first reading from Exodus, the manna that appeared each morning
on the desert floor and satisfied their hunger. But Jesus sets the
record straight for them: Moses was not the one who provided that bread
from heaven. God did. And now, he tells them that he is offering them a
new and even more wondrous bread from heaven: Himself. I am the new
manna, he says, “I am the bread of life.”
But, my friends, that was then. What about now?
How does this story intersect with our lives? Where do we fit into it?
Well, for one thing, I think we’re not at all unlike those people who,
even though they had witnessed something utterly dazzling in the feeding
of the 5000, wanted something more from Jesus before they would place
their faith in him. They wanted a sign, they told him. And he had
already given them a sign. And we can be like that. We are surrounded by
signs – wondrous signs - each day, if we but have the eyes to see. In
fact, these very eyes with which we see are wonders – little miracles -
aren’t they! And so is the air we breathe, and the blood that flows in
our veins, and the heart that beats within us. Maybe not miracles in the
strict sense of the word, but wonders nonetheless. Signs from God. And
then there’s the world around us – God’s magnificent creation in all its
beauty, glory, and complexity that too often we take for granted. If we
want signs, we have them: wonders beyond number. Wonders in the natural
world.
But the wonders don’t stop there. They are most
evident in our faith life. Think of God’s abiding presence within us.
That’s a wonder! Think, too, of the sacraments that bring us into close
union with Jesus: Baptism where we began our walk with him, Confirmation
when we deepen our relationship with him, and Reconciliation where we
experience an outpouring of God’s mercy. Think of Marriage where human
love becomes a mirror and a channel of divine love, and think of the
sacrament of Holy Orders that raises up servant leaders for the
community of faith. Think of the Anointing of the Sick where Jesus
gently offers his healing touch. And then there is the Eucharist, the
very pinnacle of all those other sacramental encounters where Jesus
himself becomes our food and nourishment, the companion for our journey.
If only we stop to think, we are completely surrounded by signs –
wonders of grace, God making the Divine Self known to us, touching us,
loving us, healing us, nourishing us.
But, my friends, like the Israelites of old, we
can be quite blind when it comes to the signs that are all around us. We
always seem to want more, don’t we! Or is it that we want the things
Jesus can do for us more than we want Jesus himself. There’s a
difference. And we have Jesus. We do! And shouldn’t that be enough?
Shouldn’t all the things we think we need in order to be happy - things
we go after to make life better, or easier, or more comfortable -
shouldn’t they pale or fade or seem inconsequential next to the fact
that we have Jesus – in this community of faith? In his Word? In the
sacraments?
My friends, Jesus is the Bread of Life. He can satisfy
all our hungers and quench our deepest thirsts. How much more do we
need?
Father Michael G. Ryan
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