From the locum
We gather as a Parish family on another Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist. Perhaps this was a very busy week and we did not have much time or thought for Jesus. But we are here with our questions and with open ears to hear what he has to say to us. His comment to the crowd in this morning’s reading from John’s Gospel implies a question he is asking them and us as well, “What are you looking for?” Are we praying to Jesus today because we believe he can get us out of a difficulty we’ve gotten into, or a misfortune that has befallen us?
There is certainly nothing wrong with, or surprising about, praying when we are in need. But Jesus has even more to give us, for isn’t our greatest hunger the one we have for God? Do we want to experience God’s life in us and have a deeper relationship with God? That’s the bread that Jesus is offering us. In receiving Jesus today we receive the very life of God. For, as Jesus tells his disciples later in the gospel, “I am the way....” Realising what our deepest hungers are, we make the petition of the crowd our own, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
(In Jesus’s time there were no rest stops or retail outlets along the sides of the road, so carrying enough food for the journey could mean the difference between life and death. Thus, it was a custom of the time to give food to those departing for a trip.)
We are all on a journey and we don’t know how long it will last. Some sections of the trip may be perilous, faith-testing, exhausting and disorienting. We can always provide for our physical food; but to stay faithful to our calling as disciples of Jesus, we will need food that only he can provide – his very self. Isn’t that why we come each week to this liturgical celebration, to be nourished by God’s Word and the sacred meal God provides for us, Jesus Christ – our food for the journey?
Jesus saw the hunger of the crowds and fed them. Certainly he would want us to address the physical hungers of those in our community. Living the life of Jesus in the world is hard. We can get discouraged, want to give up, or even lose our way. Sometimes the world of death seems to be triumphing over the life God wants to give us. The front page of any newspaper or news link on the web, is enough to discourage us. The gospel today reminds us however, we are not making our journey alone. We travel with one another, sustained by the bread of life given us by a gracious God.
Father Michael