It is 5th August 2018. We celebrate the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The readings are from Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15; the second reading is from Ephesians 4:17, 20-24; and the Gospel from John 6:24-35. We all know what happens when we are undernourished? The recent study informs that 900 million are undernourished in the world. The consequences and side effects of the undernutrition affect different age group differently yet it has the adverse impact in all age groups. Some of the undernourishment events are epigenetic, affecting the next generation. Human persons who are adequately fed are healthy integrally. An UN based organisation, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World reported painfully that in 2017 Some 815 million people were hungry that affected the health and living. The factors that undermine food security and nutrition are spoken in length in every international, ecclesial, national meeting while we are watching the hungry people die of hunger and disappear from the face of the earth. When the shortage of bread is created humanly and politically, God comes down from Heaven to be the Bread of life. God repeatedly proved it from the time immemorial that God is the food that human persons are satisfied. We are taught in the Catechism (CCC 1394): “As bodily nourishment restores lost strength, so the Eucharist strengthens our charity, and this living charity wipes away venial sins.” In the first reading, when people were wandering in the Egyptian desert, God provided them with manna, bread from Heaven to satisfy them. God nourished God’s people with the special food. “For they did not know what it was. But Moses told them, “This is the brad that the Lord has given you to eat.” (Ex.16:15). God cannot tolerate the undernourishment in any form. Whenever we make a human person go hungry, we hurt God so intensely. The responsorial Psalm praises, “The Lord gave them bread from Heaven.” (Ps.78:24). St. Paul invites us to nourish our souls with righteousness and holiness of truth by clothing ourselves anew. Let us not look for things that satisfy us materially. The Gospel reiterates that our encounter with Jesus nourishes us integrally. Jesus takes care of our hunger and thirst as the Father took care of people in the desert. We all are hungry and thirsty spiritually. Somehow, we can notice our physical hunger ignoring the spiritual hunger mostly. God alone can nourish us through Jesus. Jesus is the Bread of Life. We will remain hungry and thirsty unless we encounter and experience Jesus the life-giving Bread. We will never go hungry, when we are in the company of Jesus. We will never be undernourished as we believe Jesus the Bread of Life. “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” (Jn.6:35). Our rewarding relationship with Jesus is the food for our life. The hunger in every relationship is satisfied with the intimate relationship with Jesus. The revolution of nourishment to body and soul is only possible when we put the relationship with Christ first and begin to imbibe the values of the Gospel. May the Lord be enough for all the hunger in our body and soul. May we be satisfied with Jesus, the Bread of Life. God bless you and have a good day.

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