August 2^nd 2015.  Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL John 6:24-35

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

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

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GOSPEL 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.’

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . Don Fabio tells us how the history of the relationship between God and humanity is the story of a people (us) who attach themselves to God to the extent that their appetites are satisfied. The people in the Old Testament have faith in God for as long as he rains manna from heaven. The people in the New Testament are happy as long as Jesus multiplies loaves and fishes. But Jesus asks the people to go beyond this way of relating to God. He asks them not to prioritize the bread that perishes. This “bread that perishes” is really our faith that wavers whenever God does not do what we want him to do. We will never learn to live mature and healthy lives until we learn to go beyond our sensations and appetites and develop a relationship with God on a different level. For as long as our lives are dominated by our efforts to gratify the senses, we cannot develop a fully authentic relationship with God. At times when we are hungry, at times when our appetites are not being gratified, at times when things are not going our way – these are the moments when we must learn to go beyond the senses and place our trust in the One the Father has sent, the true bread from heaven that gives life to the world.

In the Old Testament, the people had faith as long as their bellies were full. The people in the Gospel story similarly place a priority on the satisfaction of their appetites. This is the “bread” that they long for, but Jesus wants them to strive after a different bread.

In all of Scripture there is only one occasion when an act of faith is made in someone who is not the God of Israel. After the Passover we are told that the people believed in God and believed in Moses. There is a sense of this in the background to Sunday’s Gospel. Jesus wishes to get away from the people after the multiplication of the loaves and fishes because they want to take him and make him king by force. He crosses the lake but the people follow him. Jesus addresses them by getting to the very heart of the issue: “The only reason you are following me is because you had all the bread you wanted to eat. You did not appreciate that this was a sign that that points to something beyond merely physical satisfaction. Food of this sort does not endure but you are in pursuit of something that is ultimately transitory.” All of this discourse about a food that endures to eternal life is lost on the people and they ask him to explain how they can do what God requires of them. In any case, their bellies are full and they see little need to seek anything further. Jesus replies that they must believe in him who the Father has sent. The Gospel then begins to evoke the Old Testament passage regarding the Passover in which the people placed their faith not only in God but also in Moses. The people ask Jesus, “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.” The people, in other words, consider bread to be their main priority. They cannot see what Jesus is complaining about. After all, the ancient people of Israel had manna to eat in the desert, and now their more modern counterparts simply want something of a similar sort.

The history of the relationship between God and humanity is the history of a people (us) who attach ourselves to God to the extent that he helps us to satisfy our appetites. If our appetites are left unsatisfied, our faith wavers quickly

The first reading tells of the first occasion when the people were given manna to eat. It all arose because the people were complaining about their situation. They had lost faith in Moses, despite their act of faith in him after the Passover. They moan that it would have been better for them to die in Egypt than to be hungry in the desert. John’s Gospel passage takes us back to precisely this kind of situation. The people vacillate between complaining to God and placing their faith in him. They submit to God, but not fully. They see the extraordinary power of God being manifested, yet immediately afterwards they become unsure. Often we think of this Gospel passage from John as holding up the contrast between different kinds of bread, but the “bread that doesn’t last” referred to in the Gospel is our faith that fails quickly. When all is going well, I believe. When things go against me, I am quick to lose heart. Children behave in exactly this way. They do not have the logical capacity to comprehend the extension of time. Everything is in the present. As long as I am contented in the present moment, then all is well. But if the immediate source of my contentment is taken away from me, perhaps for safety reasons, then it becomes an absolute tragedy. But if I am distracted by a new source of contentment then my previous state of dissatisfaction disappears as if it were never there in the first place. This is “the food that does not last” – the satisfaction of the appetites. For as long as I am satisfied I believe; if I become dissatisfied then I cease to believe.

We cannot live mature, healthy and robust lives until we learn to detach ourselves from our sensations and place our faith in God regardless of whether our appetites are satisfied in this moment or not. It is when we are hungry, when we are not being affirmed or gratified that we must learn to place our trust in God, the food that endures to eternal life.

It is not possible for the Father to sow something stable, worthwhile, and good in us if we cannot learn to detach ourselves from our sensations. Our appetites must cease to be absolutes. The human being is more than his appetites and it is essential that we come to open ourselves to something greater. We have the capacity to enter into a relationship with God himself, and it is here that we come to fulfilment as persons. Moses had to live with this discontinuous relationship between God and the people, a covenant that was continually being broken and betrayed because the people made an absolute out of the present moment. The Son of God then becomes incarnate and demands that the people, we, go beyond the food that perishes. How can God be the God of our lives and complete his works in us if we do not begin to submit ourselves at the very moment when we are hungry, at moments when we do not have the solutions we crave for? This is the time to show faith! The previous day, Jesus had multiplied the loaves, but today he does not intend to do so. He considers his discourse to the people to be more important than another multiplication of loaves and fishes. But the people just want more bread; they don’t seem interested in interior growth or a continuous faith relationship with God. It is not possible for us to develop mature, beautiful and healthy lives unless we can make this leap beyond the immediate “bread” of instant gratification. How can we truly think of others or give real nutrition to others if our stomachs are an absolute, if our own wellbeing is our priority. We live in an epoch that had made itself a slave to comfort and personal wellbeing. We must learn to disobey this common logic if we are to enter into an authentic relationship with God.