August 4, 2024: Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel: John 6: 24-35

When the people saw that neither Jesus nor the disciples were there, they got into the boats and crossed to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found Jesus on the other side of the lake, they said, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered them: “The truth of the matter is, you are not looking for me because you have seen signs, but because you have eaten your fill of the bread. You should not be working for perishable food, but for life-giving food that lasts for all eternity; this the Chosen One can give you, for the Chosen One bears the seal of Abba God.” At this they said, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus replied, “This is the work of God: to believe in the one whom God has sent.” So they asked Jesus, “What sign are you going to give to show us that we should believe in you? What will you do? Our ancestors had manna to eat in the desert; as Scripture says, ‘God gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” Jesus said to them, “The truth of the matter is, Moses has not given you bread from heaven; yet my Abba gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the One who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” “Teacher,” they said, “give us this bread from now on.” Jesus explained to them, “I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever be hungry. No one who believes in me will ever be thirsty.”

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Reflection

This Sunday, we transition to John’s Gospel where we will spend the month of August reading and reflecting on much of Chapter 6, the Bread of Life Discourse.

We join in the Gospel passage following Jesus’ multiplication of two fish and five barley loaves that abundantly fed the crowd following him. The author(s) of this Gospel invites us to witness a dialogue of sorts between Jesus and the crowd who have urgently sought him out as they were seeking additional bread to assuage their biological hunger.

Their recent experience of eating from the hands of Jesus and their historical knowledge of the role of Moses in the Exodus story of the bread from heaven, compelled them to attempt to permanently secure this feeding source.

They wonder what is required on their part to guarantee this arrangement and Jesus speaks of their need to engage in the work of God which he defines as to believe in him as the Chosen One of God and to believe in his mission.

I have come to appreciate this crowd and their dialogue with Jesus because I see that Jesus can and does use even our somewhat superficial motives for seeking him. When we encounter him, he invites us to a new understanding of and a new relationship with him.

His words can open our eyes and hearts to distinctive and everlasting possibilities that he can and will offer us. Through my reflecting I believe that he will take all my feeble reasons for seeking him (even an essential basic physical need as in the setting of today’s Gospel) and invite me into a deeper awareness of who he is and what a life in an unfathomable and personal relationship with him will truly mean.

His identity, as the Bread of Life who comes down from heaven, his Incarnation as a human and his identity as a Divine Being who comes to dwell among us, can lead me to eternal life with our Triune God.

Action

Reflect on a time when you became aware that you were seeking Jesus, were hungering for him to share his life with you. Under what circumstances did you meet him? How did he look at you, what words did he speak, how did he call you to engage with him? Rest in the grace you are given through your reflection