First Reading – Exodus 16: 2-4, 12-15
Second Reading – Ephesians 4: 17. 20-24
Gospel – John 6: 24-35
Today, I take as our homily theme St Paul’s expression in the second Reading ‘spiritual revolution’ and ‘the bread of life, the bread that comes down from heaven’ in the Gospel.
You may recall that last week we heard the story of the feeding of the five thousand to the people in the desert, the only miracle that is recorded in all four Gospels. And why? Because it is one of the events that signals the real presence of God in his son Jesus. We can see a corollary with the Eucharist in receiving the real presence of Jesus.
But the people returned the next day for more of the same, physical need. In our first reading the Israelites complain to Moses and Aaron that they have led them out of Egypt into the desert only for them to die of hunger – in their previous life of captivity they had at least their fill to eat. They look back and reflect that perhaps they were better off in Egypt. God hears their complaints and provides manna – yes God provides. Memory of this food, the sign of God’s love and the symbol of bread for life, given them to satisfy and nourish them physically and sustain life, comes down through the centuries becoming for the Jews the classic example of God’s care for his people which still persists in their history in the time of the feeding of the 5,000: but for them it was bread in Moses’ time and it was bread in Jesus’ time.
They want more. It is a common human desire to want more and food is only one thing for which we crave. In the feeding of the 5,000 Jesus recognises that without food life is not possible. We have a common expression don’t we of ‘we eat to live, not live to eat’? But bread feeds only one hunger which I will come back to.
To want more is told in a story of a man who goes to a local restaurant every day and always orders the soup. One day the man asks for a little more bread. The next day the manager tells the waitress to give him four slices of bread instead of two. But the man asks for a little more bread so the next day the waitress is asked to give him eight slices of bread. The manager asks, ‘how was your meal today?’ he replies, ‘good, but could you give me a little more bread?’ The next day the waitress is instructed to give the man a whole loaf with his soup. When the manager asks the same question, the man replies, ‘it was good but could you give me a little more bread?’ The manager is determined now to hear that his customer is satisfied. He orders a six foot long loaf of bread. When the man returns the next day the waitress and the manager cut the loaf in half, butter the entire length of each half and present it next to the bowl of soup. The man consumes all the soup AND both halves of the six foot loaf of bread. The manager is sure he will get the answer he is looking for. When the man comes to pay, the manager asks how his meal had been TODAY. The man replies, ‘it was as good as usual…but I see you are back to giving only two slices of bread!’
The man, the Israelites in the desert with Moses and the people who chased Jesus for more bread have a lot in common – never satisfied, no matter how much bread it would never be enough.
It is easy for us to be like this, to be self-centred but that it isn’t about you or me but about all who are God’s children and to have a constant concern for others. The last time the people met Jesus they missed the point – they saw only bread FOR life, for living. In our Gospel Jesus is teaching the people and us that he has come to be the bread OF life. It is through his teaching initially that we come to follow and live as brothers and sisters of God – to bring us together, to experience God. And it is through the Eucharist that we experience that bread for eternal life. Bread in Moses’ time was bread from heaven and in the feeding of the 5,000 too – but the bread of life leads us TO heaven, to an eternal life which we will one day embrace and constant receiving of Jesus in the Eucharist feeds our spiritual journey – a spiritual revolution that we can ‘put on a new self that has been created in God’s way.’
Material food feeds one hunger; there are other hungers for which we seek satisfaction: a hunger for importance; for acceptance; for relationships; for motivation; for faith; for hope; for love; for eternal life – a hunger to embrace the blessing of a divine life with Jesus, with all the saints – the hunger for God.
St Augustine said, ‘Be what you eat.’ As we receive the Eucharist today may we ‘be’ that loving and caring presence of Christ in the world today.