Seeking eternal nourishment in Christ

Aug 02, 2024

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
Readings: Exodus 16: 2-4, 12-15;
Ephesians 4: 17, 20-24;
Gospel: John 6: 24-35

If we are familiar with the temptation of Christ in the desert, the first temptation has something to do with today’s Gospel. Christ was tempted to turn stone into bread. He would have been very hungry by then and if He were a mere human, He would have given in to satisfy His hunger. This temptation represents one of the ways which Christ could use to achieve His mission. However, He rejected the temptation because His mission is not about ending hunger. His mission was very clear – the liberation from sin and not merely satisfying physical hunger.

In today’s Gospel, we see Christ telling the people who were looking for Him that they did not look for Him because they have understood that He was the Messiah. Since He was able to satisfy their physical hunger and alleviate their misery, they only saw Him as a holy person who could give them a better life. If we were in their place, would we have behaved otherwise? In all honesty, we would likely behave exactly like them. This is the reality of our human nature; our thoughts and actions never go beyond what is physical.

When the people mention the feeding of the Israelites in the desert with manna, they are again thinking of physical sustenance. But they forget who is the one who gave them that food in the first place. In their minds, they could only see that it was Moses who provided food for them, Jesus reminded them that it was God who gave their ancestors food. Without God’s help, they would have had nothing to eat. Everything the people said in the Gospel points to the human need of satisfying the physical aspects of their life. However, Jesus taught them that they needed to go beyond themselves.

There are two aspects in the Gospel today that we need to take note of. The first is that we need to always keep in mind that whatever we have in life, whatever we have received comes from God. Very often, we forget the giver and only concentrate on the gifts. We take and take but how often do we call to mind that it is God who is the giver. When we focus too much on the gifts, we end up becoming self-centred. When we are able to focus on the giver, who is God, we learn to go beyond ourselves and focus our thoughts on what is eternal.

The second aspect is the temporal nature of our life. Whatever we have in this world, however we satisfy ourselves, our bodies will deteriorate and return to the dust from which we came. We need to focus our attention on what is eternal – the salvation of our souls. In the first temptation of Christ, Jesus refutes the devil and says that we cannot live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. In telling the people that He is the bread of life, Jesus is telling the people, and us, that He is giving us what is eternal. John’s Gospel tells us very clearly that Jesus is the Word and it is this Word that will keep our souls alive for eternity. This is why, when we go for Mass, we receive both food for the soul and food for the body. The Liturgy of the Word nourishes us intellectually and spiritually, the Liturgy of the Eucharist nourishes us physically and spiritually. We need both elements to make us whole.

The final point that I would like to make concerns working for God. Many of us are serving in ministry and we all say that we are doing God’s work. If we are honest with ourselves, this will seem very hollow. Jesus tells us today that to work for God is to believe in the one that God has sent. Yes, we all profess our faith in Christ but is it merely lip service or do we really mean what we profess? If we are truly working for God, we won’t give in to pettiness and allow our human nature to influence our service.

Let us strive to work for the food that will last instead of what is temporal. The Bread of Life and the Word of God can truly nourish us both spiritually and physically but it is up to us to decide for ourselves what is important for us in this life. What we do and consume in this life will affect how we are in the next. Let us allow God to quench our thirst and satisfy our hunger because, ultimately, God is the only one who can give us the fulfilment that we are looking for.