Gospel & Reflection for the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time.
John 6:24‐35
When the people saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into boats and crossed to Capernaum to look for Jesus. When they found him on the other side, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’
Jesus answered:
‘I tell you most solemnly,
you are not looking for me because you have seen the signs
but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat.
Do not work for food that cannot last,
but work for food that endures to eternal life,
the kind of food the Son of Man is offering you,
for on him the Father, God himself, has set his seal.’
Then they said to him, ‘What must we do if we are to do the works that God wants?’ Jesus gave them this answer, ‘This is working for God: you must believe in the one he has sent.’ So they said, ‘What sign will you give to show us that we should believe in you? What work will you do? Our fathers had manna to eat in the desert; as scripture says: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ Jesus answered:
‘I tell you most solemnly,
it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven,
it is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven,
the true bread;
for the bread of God
is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.’
‘Sir,’ they said ‘give us that bread always.’ Jesus answered:
‘I am the bread of life.
He who comes to me will never be hungry;
he who believes in me will never thirst.’
Reflection
Friends, in his lifetime, artist Vincent Van Gogh was an impoverished, tormented soul. By reputation, he was unknown; commercially unsuccessful even though he painted over 2100 pieces of art, and was painfully conflicted, personally. But following his tragic death at the young age of thirty-seven, his reputation grew, and not only did he become posthumously famous, but he became one of the most influential figures in the history of Western art. He exists now in the public imagination as a misunderstood genius.
In 1885, just five years before his death, Van Gogh visited a museum in Amsterdam to see a masterpiece painted by fellow dutchman, Rembrandt. It was Rembrandt’s famous painting titled ‘The Jewish Bride.’ Having seen it, Van Gogh later wrote to his brother saying: ‘I would give ten years of my life, if I could sit before this picture for a fortnight, with nothing but a crust of dry bread for food. My first hunger is not for food, though I have fasted ever so long. The desire for painting is so much stronger…’
Van Gogh was acknowledging a very natural truth. It is not just the body that gets hungry, the heart and the spirit get hungry too. Van Gogh’s great passion, his greatest hunger was for art, and everything else paled in comparison. It is the same for us all. We experience in life not just one hunger but many hungers. We all have passions, interests, and wants which drive us forward. There are many appetites within us and every one of them desire to be fed. But not every hunger should be fed! Some appetites can destroy us if we feed them even a crumb.
Among the great hungers of life are the hunger to be accepted by others, to matter to someone. There is a hunger for relationship so as not to be alone. There can also be a hunger for success, fulfilment, achievement – no one wants to fail. A person can hunger to have, collect, possess, and to own – so they won’t feel empty or different. One can hunger for hope and love – to be important in the eyes and life of another. Some of what we hunger for will benefit us, while some can never fill the emptiness that we may feel inside. Just ask Vincent Van Gogh.
But knowing the different hungers of life and their effects upon us, but being able to see that our deepest, ultimate hunger is for God, is at the heart of our readings this weekend.
In our First Reading, the Israelites received from God a special food which they called ‘Manna.’ This food was given not to feed their appetite or hunger but to nourish a renewal of their faith in and need of God. Their experience of the desert had affected their faith in Him. Their loss of trust manifested itself in constant complaining and criticism. Things were so bad that they were wishing to be back in Egypt, believing that slavery was a better destiny than that what God was promising them! “Why,” they ask, “did we not die at the Lord’s hands in the land of Egypt, when we were able to sit down to pans of meat and could eat bread to our heart’s content.” The Manna was a reassurance, a reminder that God was still with them; that He was guiding and loving them still; that He had saved them from a terrible existence and fate and that His promises were true. The Manna helped them to believe and trust in God once again.
In our Gospel, the people having been fed through the miracle of the loaves and the fish, search excitedly for Jesus once more but they are looking for Him, for the wrong reason. They want another meal, nothing more. But Jesus insists on giving them something more. He promises them Eternal Life. Eternity was the reason of His incarnation, ministry, and love. He has come to give life and life to the full. When the people understand this, they crave it more than bread and fish.
Friends, the Eucharist is much more than what appears to be. In the Eucharist, we have not just food and nourishment for the journey of life, we have Christ Himself. And not just is it Christ, it is also our reassurance of God’s presence, love and promise of eternal life. Our greatest hunger should be for the Eucharist. Everything else, should pale in comparison.
Let us have this bread, always.
Fr. Richard