Last week's Gospel told us about Jesus
feeding the hungry crowds through the miracle of multiplying the loaves &
the fish. That story concluded with the
crowd seeing Jesus as a prophet after they had eaten their fill. Today, we see a continuation of the unfolding
drama in the 6th chapter of John’s Gospel as the crowd yet again is
filled with questions & doubts. In
the Gospel readings these past few weeks, we’ve seen the crowds following Jesus
around wherever he goes. The crowds are clearly searching for something. But, the crowds don’t quite understand what
Jesus is all about. Is Jesus going to
provide for their earthly needs, symbolized by the lunch of bread and fish that
he provided them? Or, perhaps there is
more beneath the surface that the crowds are just not yet seeing. The crowds
still clamor for more signs – they want to see and believe. For us today as modern-day followers of
Jesus, what does it mean to truly believe into him? Notice that I use the phrase “believing into
Jesus,” not “believing in Jesus.” What
affect could today's Gospel have on the way we seek our daily bread from
Christ, the way we are challenged to grow in our faith?
To believe, to have faith: this is at
the foundation of what it means for us to journey as Catholics. It's common in modern American for us to
believe or have faith in someone or something on the basis of authority. In our culture, faith & belief often have
a strong intellectual character; they are usually an act of the mind. However, in the ancient Mediterranean world,
faith and belief were that connection that bound people together, coming more
from a sentiment of heart instead of an act of the mind.
When the crowds ask what they can do
to accomplish the works of God, Jesus tells them that the work of God is for
them to believe in the one whom God sent, to believe in or to believe INTO
Jesus. Believing into Jesus goes beyond
an intellectual assent; it involves the loyalty, the commitment, and the solidarity
of our very being that forms our faith in Jesus. Jesus fed the crowd last week as he was moved
with compassion for their plight – the multiplication of the loaves and the
fish was an important act of kindness to peasants of ancient Israel, as most of
them lived a day-to-day existence in getting the food they needed to
survive. Yet, believing in Jesus moves
us way beyond our earthly needs & concerns.
Jesus moves the crowd from their thoughts of earthly food filling their
stomachs to the food that the Son of Man will give them that endures for
eternal life. Even though the crowd in
today's Gospel seems like it is making strides in understanding Jesus and his
message, they still want another sign. Wasn't it enough that he just performed
this miracle for them? Yet, on one
level, we can understand the need for signs in the tradition of the prophets of
ancient Israel, as the true prophets always proved themselves to the people
through signs that came directly from God.
How often do we cry out to the Lord
wanting some sort of sign, wanting clarity, wanting something to reinforce our
faith? Look at the Israelites who had
just been delivered from bondage in our reading from Exodus, how they were
miraculously brought to safety through the sea.
They cried out to God in a voice louder than the rumbling in their
stomachs, not having faith that God would provide them food on their journey. They were afraid to trust God – they were
afraid to trust their faith. In a moment
of doubt, they thought it would be better to go back to Egypt, to walk away
from God. They would even go back to the
horrors of their captivity in slavery, because at least their basic needs of
food and housing were met. Even when manna was sent down from heaven, they did
not understand that it was a gift from God to meet their needs.
The Israelites had manna in the desert
to satisfy their hunger; likewise, we have the true bread from heaven in our
Lord Jesus Christ. What is it that this
bread from heaven will do to us in our daily journey of faith? How is it different from the manna that fed
the hungry Israelites in the desert?
Paul tells us in his letter to the Ephesians that we are “to put away
our old selves, to leave behind our former way of thinking and living” We are to be renewed in the spirit, in the way
in which we live, in the way we think in our minds. We are to be open to the grace of holiness
that God gives to us. That is how this
bread from heaven will feed us, renew us, re-energize us.
Letting the significance of the bread
of heaven touch our souls can be a very wondrous event in our lives. One of the great honors I have as a priest is
distributing the Eucharist during mass.
When I look into the eyes of the people and declare this “the body of
Christ,” the joy and meaning that you see in the expressions of the people can
be amazing. It is hard to put into words
sometimes, but our hearts know what the bread of life means to us and to our
own lives.
That is because the daily bread that we
receive from Christ brings us new life - it calls us to a continuing process of
transformation, conversion, & renewal.
We as a people of faith live in the same physical world as people
without this faith. However, our faith
gives us a new filter & a new lens in which we look at the world. It is through faith that we are able to
believe that the Eucharist is truly the body & blood of Christ. It is through faith that we are able proclaim
the dignity of all human life in a secular culture that sees so many people in
our society as disposable & unwanted.
Through our faith, we are in solidarity and union with Jesus and with
our brothers & sisters. We are in
union with them not only when times are good and when the bread we eat is
plentiful, but most especially when we are suffering with Jesus on his way to
the cross. Through our faith, we are
challenged by Jesus Christ to go beyond the skepticism and cynicism that
engulfs so much of our world, to go beyond the sarcasm and the existential
angst of modern society.
Even though we are challenged, encouraged, and pushed to grow
in our faith, Christ always approaches us with mercy and love. He helps us in our weaknesses, in our
unbelief. We are called to go through
our lives of faith by looking at the bread and wine of the Eucharist that we share
together as a community as a sign of Christ’s love for us, Only our faith in
our daily bread will satisfy our hunger and thirst for what is most important
in life.
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