Dear Friends,

 

As I began last week, we continue this week a reflection on Chapter 6 of the Gospel of John, the “Bread of Life” discourse, the subject of today’s Gospel reading, a discourse that followed the multiplication of the loaves. For your scriptural information, the discourse is separated from the actual miracle by the storm on the lake, Jesus’ walking on the water and the fright of the disciples.

 

The 1^st Reading, from the Book of Exodus, is chosen because it narrates the occurrence in the desert to which the crowd refers in the dialogue with Jesus. In that Old Testament experience, the Israelites, who have been grumbling against God, are given this “food from heaven,” the quail in the evening (“you shall eat flesh”) and the bread in the morning (“you shall have your fill of bread”). Though they are given this food from heaven, they do not understand the meaning of the sign and Moses must explain it to them – this is the bread from heaven “that the Lord has given you to eat.” It is the Lord who cares for your needs. 

 

As we move more deeply into the miracle, John tells us that we, like the crowd, must move away from the physical hunger that is satisfied to the deeper hunger that lives in all of us – the hunger for food that endures forever. The bread multiplied thus becomes the sign of that which God will give us to satisfy those deeper hungers. What in your life do you hunger for that never seems to be satisfied? Peace? Love? Fulfillment? Freedom from anxieties and fears? The same God who cared for the needs of your ancestors in the desert, Who gave them manna, food for the journey, that same God once again sends bread, bread that will never perish, bread that will lead you to eternal life – and that bread is Jesus, Himself, upon whom “the Father, God has set His seal”.

 

In today’s excerpted passage, Jesus has been engaged in trying to raise the consciousness of His listeners. Starting with the physical food of the multiplication, He has lead them to reflect on the manna in the desert, not just as a feeding but as a sign of the providence of God, that same God Who now continues that providence in the One Whom He has sent, Jesus Christ, and how that same Christ, Son and Messiah, invites them to look beyond their narrow expectations of the Messiah to the ways in which that same Messiah connects them to God and life. We will come to see and hear more of this as we go more deeply into Chapter 6 in the coming weeks.

 

This passage should have significance for us as we come to Mass each week. In the experience of celebrating Eucharist, Jesus invites us to look beyond the events of the week past and to see God’s presence in them. He invites us to hear the words of Scripture, especially the Gospels, not as we would in an English Literature lesson (like it was Shakespeare), but as living words that give direction for our lives. He invites us to see the offertory procession with the bread and wine, not just as a way to get these two elements from point A to point B, but as a sign of all our trials and tribulations which, somehow, God will transform for us into new life, as the bread and wine is transformed into the Body & Blood of the living Lord. 

 

See the signs (and symbols) in the liturgy, first, but get beyond them to how God is touching you.