Good morning good people,
It is 04th August 2024.
May the Lord give you peace, health, and happiness in the Holy Spirit. I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE is the theme of the week.
As we are gathered here on 18th Sunday of the ordinary time, we meet Jesus as the Word of Father, the Bread of Life, and the Values of the Kingdom.
There are few questions come to our mind after listening to the readings of the day.
Are we complaining or contributing to God? Are we satisfied in life?
What are we looking for from Jesus? Whatever we look for we are sure to get it. If we look for materials affluence, you get wealth; if you look for spiritual wealth, you are bestowed with all graces you long for. What are you looking for from Jesus.
“Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.”
We are hungry again as the people of Israel. People murmured against Moses and God. God gave them Manna, enough to eat for the day not for hoarding and keeping for oneself. Manna is a gift from God and as a test. Manna was a sign of God’s divine providence and confirming His promise to take care of God’s people.
“There is enough for everybody’s need and not for everybody’s greed”. Mahatma Gandhi.
HIGHER CALLING: UPGRADING OUR VERSION: are we out of version? A new outlook in dealing with our hunger by being holy, and unless we break the past attachments to our greed, licentiousness and selfishness, we constantly complain and cannot become contributors.
“Lord, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.”
Are we misunderstanding the gift of manna as that of Israel?
Jesus is the trusted source of life and living.
Temporary satisfying hunger. Jesus wants to satisfy our deepest hunger.
Jesus provides what.
May our hunger not end up table of friends but the table of the Lord.
Starting from last, we will be reflecting on John 6 for the coming five weeks.
Two types of hunger:
We feel so intense when we are physically hungry. But the spiritual hunger is either not taken care or suppressed as less important. We all are hungry. Some are hungry physically and some others are spiritually. Jesus alone nourishes and takes care of our hunger.
When hunger comes, we change totally. Faith in Jesus is the food that strengthens us when we are hungry.
Our Longing for food: “As it is, you have brought us to this wilderness to starve this whole company to death.”
God cares for us even when we complain. God fed them with the food from Heaven in the desert. Manna was the free gift to the people, yet they were not satisfied. Manna made their minds to be contented for that day not hoarding it for the next so that they can depend and rely on God.
In the second reading, St. Paul tells the Ephesians that they cannot live according to their whims and fancy but to put on Christ in becoming new person. He wants us to leave our addictive and complacent ways that offers pleasure forgetting the presence.
Jesus admonishes the people that they need to work for peace, justice, and truth than to live for food alone.
For all our hunger, Jesus is the nourishment. He is the new manna. The Eucharist takes care of our anxiety, fear, depression, worries, and sickness. ““I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Two kinds of Food: Sustaining food that nourishes our entire being while supplemental food that takes care of our body alone. It is needless to expound about which food we seek after so much. Values, preference, choices of our lives depend on that give us pleasure right now not on what could sustain us integrally.
Jesus offers the most important I AM statement. Jesus then answers simply: “I AM the Bread of Life.” “I AM” is the name of God given to Moses at the burning bush. It is the first of seven ‘I AM’ statements uttered by Jesus in John’s gospel, all pointing to his divine origin.
The others are I AM the Light of the World (8:12, 9:5). I AM the Gate (10:7,9). I AM the Good Shepherd (10:11,14). I AM the Resurrection and the Life (11:25). I AM the Way: The Truth and the Life (14:6). I AM the Vine (15:1,5).
Jesus is the new manna that sustains us. From birth to death, Jesus remains the food for us. Jesus was born in Bethlehem that means ‘house of bread;’ while he was in the world, He made us believe that He is the living bread. “Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” (Mt.26:26). By the one sacrifice on the Cross, Jesus gave us His Body and Blood. Till this very moment, He promises us, “surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Mt.28:20).
We can continue to live a life that bothers, worries, and cares about ourselves satisfying with the world of Me.
We need to surrender to the Lord in the Eucharist. There is so much of depression, worries, lack of trust, and there is hunger and thirst right within each one of us.
“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” (Ps.42:1,2). Let us stay hungry for the Bread of Life as long as we live here on earth. May the Lord bless each one of us.