18th Sunday
of Ordinary Time – August 1, 2021
Last Sunday we
switched from reading Mark’s gospel to that of
John. On Sunday we continue with
the sixth chapter of John on Jesus as the
Bread of Life. In last Sunday’s gospel we saw how
excited the people were after Jesus had fed them with just a few loaves and
fish. They were
so excited that they wanted to make him king. “This really
is the prophet who is to come into
the world,” they cried. Their being fed
with bread reminded them of Moses, who fed the people
with manna (First
Reading) as well as an expression of the expected coming of the Messiah-King.
But Jesus fled to the mountains. He could have used this occasion to exploit
the situation and
further his own mission, but he rejected it outright as a
temptation. “The devil said to him,
‘If you are the Son
of God, command this stone to become bread.’ Jesus
answered him, ‘It is
written, ‘One does not live by
bread alone.’” He was indeed their Messiah-King but not in
their way. The
disciples have been packed off in a boat to return to Capernaum in case they
got the wrong idea and tried to take advantage of Jesus’ popularity.
They also had to learn
the kind of king their Teacher was.
The crowd also
returned to Capernaum looking for Jesus. After finding him they asked,
“When
did you come here?” It is one of those ironic questions that
John loves. A seemingly innocent
and simple question which actually touches on
the real origins and identity of Jesus. Where
does Jesus come from and how did
he get here? Jesus tells them they are looking for him not
because they have
seen signs but because they had got some free bread to eat. They did not
realize that the feeding itself was a spectacular sign pointing to something
much more than
the material bread they enjoyed. The bread was a sign of an
altogether different kind of food,
a different kind of nourishment on a
different level entirely. A food that endures forever;
this is the real food
that Jesus has come to offer and to be in himself. But they still have
not
grasped what he is saying to them. What must we do, they asked, to get this
bread of life?
The answer was simple and straightforward: “You must
believe in the one God has sent.” That is
all and it is everything. To
believe IN Jesus is to commit oneself totally and unconditionally
to his Way.
To believe in a person is to make an investment of one’s whole
self. It is an act
of faith, of trust and a letting go.
The real bread that
comes from God is not material; it comes directly from God in the person
of
Jesus Christ. Jesus answered simply: “I AM the Bread of Life.” I am
life-giving and will
lead you to eternal life. At the end of today’s gospel reading, Jesus uses the language of
coming to him, ‘whoever comes to me…’ He invites us into
a personal friendship with himself.
This is what will really satisfy our
deepest desires. Our good works will then flow from our
relationship with him.
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus asks us all to work on our personal
relationship with him, to keep coming to him and believing in him, in response
to his invit-
ation and call.
We, too, need to ask:
“How is Jesus bread and how are we to get it?” By
believing in Jesus,
by an unconditional and total giving of self to him. By
going to Jesus, by becoming his close
companion (one who shares bread: Latin cum-with and panis-bread). “Who comes to me will never
be hungry.”
As Jesus’ companions we too are called to nourish others. He called on his
followers to feed
the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to cloth the naked,
to welcome the stranger, to take
care of the sick, to visit those in prison.
This is exactly what happens when we have been fed
by the Bread of Life. In so
far as we do this for others we do it for him. All of those good
works remain at
the heart of Jesus’ ministry and at the
heart of the life of his followers.