Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
John 6:24-35
Dear Friends, The folks in today’s Gospel were happy with the free meal of fish and bread but they had their eyes on much bigger stakes. They were hoping Jesus would be the answer to the centuries’ old longing for a return to glory for Israel. They had visions of a new day of prosperity and wealth. The hunger in their hearts went deeper than the hunger in their stomachs. They hoped that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, the one who would finally fulfill the promises that permeated the 2000-year history of the Jewish nation.
Jesus, in turn, offers them a very different alternative. Jesus was well able to see beyond their desires for power and glory, wealth and privilege. Jesus knew well that there was a great difference between what the crowd wanted and what they truly needed, God’s invitation to eternal life.
Today, we have the second of five selections from John’s Gospel on the Bread of Life. Today’s message is that Jesus, as the Bred of Life, is our opening to the wonder of God’s love that calls us to eternal life. This beckoning reality of God’s kingdom is unending joyful happiness and the fullness of love in union with God. In two weeks, we will encounter Jesus as the Bread of Life in the life-giving gift of the Eucharist calling us into this jubilant future.
In the dialogue, the people call Jesus “rabbi” but they do not want to be taught. They have their own agenda. They want a different bread than Jesus was offering. They bought into the bread that would perish and not the bread that would bring life everlasting. Contrary to their yearnings, Jesus, as the Bread of Life, was presenting himself, along with his teachings, as the true path to unending happiness.
Our faith journey struggles with these same miscalculations. We are much more inclined to offer God our plan rather than be open to God’s plan. We are clear on what we want God to do. We are clear on what we need to be happy. Most often, we catch ourselves trying to fit God into our plans and projects.
A great deal of our faith journey is the struggle to see and accept that God does not see things as plainly as they are in our mind and heart. It comes back to that fundamental issue: How to understand the difference between what we want and what God wants for us.
In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus is straight forward: “Do not work for food that perishes but for food that endures for eternal life which the Son of Man will give you…This is the work of God that you believe in the one he sent.” (Jn 6:27-29) The people were looking to the past in the manna experience of their ancestors and to the future with dreams of wealth and power. Jesus challenged them to live in the present by accepting him as the true Bread of Life.
When Jesus declares that he is the Bread of Life it is the first of seven “I am” statements in the Gospel of John. Each statement shows how Jesus both meets a basic human need and goes far beyond that to offer eternal life. So, in today’s proclamation, “I am the Bread of Life” we are offered a challenge to both accept him in his human person and also to see in him one who reveals the true God.
Like the folks in today’s Gospel, Jesus is also calling us deeper into the all-consuming love of God for us and for all of creation. Jesus is opening us to the more profound hungers of the human heart, a heart that was made for God and will not be truly satisfied until it is nourished by the true bread that God reveals and makes available in Jesus. Jesus is telling us that his teachings and life offer us the bread to satisfy our deepest hunger, finding happiness in a love that knows no limits.
John shows us that Jesus is calling us on the long journey to grow in wisdom. He is inviting us to enter more deeply into the reality of life. Jesus is telling us that any meaningful search for happiness and satisfaction must pass the eternity test. Will our choices lead us to eternal life? What we want needs to slowly give way to what we need. This will happen when we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and walk in his light and truth. Grasping that Jesus is the true Bread of Life is our ticket to a blessed future. Our continuing challenge is to know and discern the true bread that will cast away our hunger forever. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and let him speak his truth to you.
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