EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Gospel: John 6:24-35

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

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The crowd are following Jesus because they want to satisfy their physical hunger, and they are hoping he will perform another miracle like the multiplication of the loaves. Physical hunger can be satisfied today, but will return tomorrow. Jesus exhorts the people to strive instead after a food that satisfies eternally. Much of our sinful behaviour derives from trying to satisfy our hungers with "food" that is transitory. Don Fabio tells us that trusting in the existence of a providential Father, and of a Son that offers us salvation, rids us of the constant "hungers", anxieties and fears that are felt by those who do not believe in a loving God.

The crowds follow Jesus in order to satisfy their physical wants

The multitude are following Jesus as a result of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. When they catch up with him, Jesus gets straight to the point. "You are following me not because you saw the signs, but because you had all you wanted to eat". In other words, the crowd was pursuing Jesus in order to satisfy their material wants. They had utterly failed to recognize the wider significance of the multiplication of the bread for their existence. Jesus tells them to stop putting their efforts into seeking food that doesn't last, but to strive instead after the food that endures to eternal life.

The human being has need of different kinds of nourishment 

In order to live we must eat. Without nourishment we cannot survive. There is a direct relationship between living and eating. It is an absolute necessity for us that we nourish our biological existence with food. But on a broader level there are in fact many different kinds of "food" with which we are nourished, and there are many different appetites that we seek to satisfy. The human being strives to see, to listen, to understand, to touch. We become frustrated if we are deprived of these other sources of nourishment. In every moment we assimilate into ourselves all of these various "nutrients" that we encounter in our daily lives.

Much of our disordered behaviour derives from trying to satisfy our hungers with "food" that is transitory

Despite this continual nourishment, our beings are never fully satisfied. No matter how much we eat, we will never get rid of our hunger in a final, definitive way. No matter how many ideas our minds assimilate, we will never arrive at a point where we attain a full understanding of life. No matter how much our eyes see, our hunger to see more completely and more deeply will remain unsatisfied. We eat today and are full, but we do not know if we will eat again tomorrow. We think we understand something now, but we do not know if this "understanding" will still make sense tomorrow. Our anxieties about how we will be satisfied influence much of our behaviour in a negative way. Sin often involves trying to obtain satisfaction from life in a way that is disordered and illegitimate. In the Gospel passage Jesus tells us to stop seeking after "food" that does not satisfy us in a definitive way.

Believing in Jesus satisfies our deepest hungers, anxieties and fears

There is another food, however, and Jesus offers himself as this new form of nourishment. In next Sunday's Gospel, the offering of himself as food is made more explicit. But in the Gospel we are considering this Sunday, the emphasis is placed on the importance of believing in the one whom God has sent. Jesus is the bread of life, altogether different from the manna in the desert that satisfied for one day only. If my daily existence is dependent on my own efforts to provide for myself, then I need sufficient energy and personal resources to eke from life the bread that I need to survive. If, by contrast, I believe that God is my father and Jesus is my saviour, then my life becomes completely serene. I know that I have a providential father. My life is not in the hands of nothingness or chance. I am freed from the latent anxieties, fears and desperations of those who do not trust in a providential God.

To live with faith in a God who provides for our deepest needs is a key to another type of existence altogether. Many of our errors and sins derive from pursuing solutions to hungers that are not definitive solutions at all. We pursue possessions and objects, thinking wrongly that they can give us the securities that in the end only God can give. My ultimate security consists in my relationship with God. I feel secure when I consider that God is my father, when I consider that every aspect of my future is in his hands, and that he will never abandon me. I am at ease when I reflect on the fact that Jesus is bread for me, that he is all I need, that he is the imperishable nourishment that I yearn for. Christ is the food of eternal life. He is what dissipates the persistent anxiety about how I am to be satisfied tomorrow. I find peace and fullness in believing in the paternal love of God for me, and in the salvation that the Lord Jesus offers me.