today's other readings are Exodus 16; Psalm 78 ; Ephesians 4: 17, 20-24 and John 6: 24-35
Whenever I read the start of today’s gospel, all I can think of is, “Poor Jesus”. People are after Him. After last week’s miracle of the loaves and fishes, He has become a celebrity. If Twitter had existed back then, His account would have exploded. He shouldn’t have been surprised, though. He was a tremendous teacher, with much wisdom to offer, and then there were all His miracles. But people aren’t chasing Him for His wisdom. All they were concerned about was getting fed again. In their eyes, Jesus was the archetype of Uber Eats or Doordash, and even better, when He fed them, it was free.
In their conversation with Him we see that the people had a good memory. They remembered how God had fed their ancestors in the desert as we heard in our 1st reading – with quails in the evening, and manna in the morning. It was God who fed them, for free. Now they think Jesus is going to do the same for them, again and again and again. But Jesus tells them “You’re only interested in more bread – but the food I’ve got for you will never perish – don’t be concerned about food that will perish.”
So, they were out of luck. Jesus would not be a pushover. There will be no more miracles and no more free bread for now. For He is only interested in taking them to a new level of understanding and faith. They would have to come to grips with that it would be Jesus Himself who would be the bread for their lives. And after all that he had already done for them, you’d think it would have been enough. But no.
Why? Because it is human to always want more. Which is what St. Paul rails against in our 2nd reading, as he basically says, “Don’t be like the pagans -set aside your old life and old ways of thinking. As people of faith, put on Christ – so be like Him, live like Him”.
But the people in our gospel were hungry. And they couldn’t get beyond their empty stomachs.
What are you hungry for? Food, like maybe the Popeye’s Chicken sandwich? Or are you hungry for something far more substantial – like the bread of life we will be offered in about 20 minutes from now, in Holy Communion? Think about it – Jesus tells us that the bread He offers – Himself – will sustain us eternally. And when the crowd asks Jesus, “Sir, give us this bread always”, He would. And He still does, in every mass. Jesus gives us all that He has, all that He is.
The Bread of Life is offered to us – but do you realize, in return, much is expected of us. What is expected? That we should be what St. Paul said in our 2nd reading – people of righteousness and holiness, people who have clothed ourselves with Christ, people whose actions in our day to day lives reflect what we say and what we believe.
In our 1130 Sunday mass we finish with “The mass never ends, it must be lived”. It’s true. For what we have celebrated and received has to be lived out there for the rest of the week.
Again, in every mass Jesus offers Himself to us – the Bread of Life. This is a gift – a gift to be savoured and treasured and then lived out and shared, by what we say and do in the coming week until we come together again.
Are you ready to be once again nourished with the Bread of Life in a few moments? Good! And are you willing to live out? Even better.