Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
“… whoever eats this bread will live forever.” Jn. 6:58
Those who followed Jesus were hungry!
Some possibly starving.
In response to that need, immediately preceding today’s Gospel story, Jesus literally feeds five thousand people. A miraculous event! No one had ever done such a thing before. The people were not only relieved of their hunger, they were awestruck at his power!
It was so dramatic and unique an event that all four Gospels recount this story.
As one Gospel writer would put it, the people were reported to have said: “We have never seen anything like this.”
But there’s a twist to this story.
Jesus knows that many of the people who are following him are doing so only because they can obtain a free meal. Or only because they are astounded at his ability to perform miracles.
It reminds me of a scene in the movie, The Pirates of the Caribbean, where the crew of the ship, the Black Pearl, eat and eat but are never satisfied. They cannot taste. They cannot enjoy. They cannot be filled. The bread turns to ashes in their mouth.
This is the plight of all of us. This is the description of the present-day world, not just that of the people described in today’s Gospel account.
We eat, but we are not satisfied. We seek happiness, but we don’t find it. We want more. All the time more. It is never enough.
This is why Jesus wants to take people – you and me – deeper.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus wants us to understand that as powerful a miracle as the feeding of the five thousand was, this bread that they eat will perish. He wants them – and us – to hunger even more so for the “food which endures to everlasting life.”
The ultimate bread is to feed on Christ.
“… whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
What that “food” will bring people is life to the full. Complete satisfaction. Filled to the brim. No need for more.
Or, to borrow the famous words of St. Augustine, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you, O Lord.”
None of this is to suggest, however, that the issue of feeding the hungry is not a necessity for those of us who follow the way of Christ. Jesus fed the hungry. We must do the same.
The reality of hunger in the world we live in today is appalling.
In America alone, according to Feeding America, 1 in 8 Americans struggle with hunger. 1 in 6 children may not know where they will get their next meal. The number of seniors struggling with hunger is projected to increase by another 50% by 2025.
Just as in Jesus’ time, many people are without adequate resources to acquire and prepare food. So, just as Jesus did, we must do also, in the hope that we can help put an end to this crying need.
At the same time, however, we need to remember that physical food alone will not quell our appetite for our ultimate need:
Life forever with God.
Our spiritual hunger remains our ultimate desire.
A favorite prayer of Pope Francis perhaps says it best:
“Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in Love in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.
It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in Love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”
The way to achieve this “falling in Love,” Jesus tells us, is to remind ourselves daily
“… whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
Ted Wolgamot, Psy.D.
11809194.1
8/17/18
