Walking with Jesus: 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Exodus 16:2-4; Ephesians 4:17, 20-24; John  6:24-35

It’s good to take a few moments to reflect on how God has been leading me. If I do this on a regular basis I can glean more deeply on how God’s goodness and graces are helping to form me to His image. Msgr. Chet Michael recommends his Daily Growth Plan, which has three phases: An hour a day, which is the cumulation of all our formal and informal time spent in prayer; a day a month, where we review our progress through notes and journaling; and a week a year, which is time spent on retreat. Some of us can do one of these; others can do all three. Whatever we accomplish is a good indicator of how God is touching each person to continue to move in His direction. Starting last weekend and going through Aug. 29 we listen to the sixth chapter of John's gospel known as the Bread of  Life Discourse. Throughout the Bible, bread is a symbolic representation of God’s life-sustaining provision. In these selections when Jesus tells the hungry crowds that He is the Bread of Life, He is teaching that He alone is their true source of spiritual life -- both in this present life and in the everlasting life to come in heaven. It is interesting to note that bread is not just food to satisfy our bodily needs but also spiritual nourishment that God provides to us in so many ways.

In the gospel, Jesus has just fed more than 5,000 with a few pieces of fish and barley loaves. The people continue to follow Him the next day. They want to see more signs, but that is not the point of this miracle. It is not the “sign” itself but what is behind the sign: God's compassion and mercy. These are at the heart of the sign. These signs from God are a reminder and encouragement for each person to embrace the spirit of God’s love, forgiveness, caring and mercy, and to carry these traits in our lives to those in need. How am I doing in being a “disciple” of Jesus’ love? The readings give us an encouraging, helping hand.

The Exodus story in the first reading shows us that soon after the Israelites have left Egypt and experienced the miracle of crossing the Red Sea, they begin to doubt God’s care. God continues to patiently show one lesson after another. Today they just don’t trust God. Why would He lead us out to starve us to death? We had been able to eat and survive in Egypt; why kill us now? God does not respond in anger but gives them both bread and flesh to eat. Another sign accompanies these miracles: They are able to gather this food each day but are not able to store it up for another day. They are to rely on God’s goodness for their daily needs. Only trust in God will bring them to the Promised Land.

We fail to remember signs from our youth: Three times a day, when it was time to eat, food was put on the table. A lot of preparation went into this: shopping, preparing the food, cleaning up afterward. Our “bread” from loved ones was given and often our response was complaining and bickering; more rarely we gave compliments. Has our gratitude to God been more frequent?

Paul tells the Ephesians that in listening to the life and teachings of Jesus they have been transformed and are not the people they were before. They are fundamentally and radically different. They have reassessed their lives and begun a new way of thinking and acting. Now they are living as Jesus did. Am I? We've all heard the expression WWJD … What Would Jesus Do? Paul encourages them and us to think: not as society does, but as Jesus would.

The Gospel crowd is mesmerized by the spectacular feeding of more than 5,000 people. They wondered what else Jesus could do: kick out Rome? Straighten the huge imbalance between the rich and the poor? Keep countries from warring with each other? They gladly eat the bread and fish but they have no idea what it meant; it seemed to be just a free meal. They have been told that Christ has been sent by God.  Following Christ means a faith commitment. They are to be committed to Jesus, the Redeemer and Messiah. Jesus is our sign … we are to be His sign … of loving, caring, forgiving. Am I living ... am I loving ... as Jesus did? Why or why not?

So I reflect on:

• Is there anything that Jesus would do today that I refuse to pick up and live?
• Do I trust Jesus with my religion? My money? My family? My personal security? My retirement? My future?

Sacred Space 2021 states:

“If you came today to a startling awareness of the goodness and generosity of God toward the world, how would you share it with others? This was the challenge that Jesus faced from childhood, because He had a unique appreciation of what God is like!

“Here Jesus uses the simplest of images to help us understand: He talks of bread. In His day, when diets were simple, bread kept people alive; it satisfied their hunger and gave them strength to keep going. Here Jesus is saying that He is the ‘bread of life’ for them: By accepting His friendship they will be nourished, fed, and strengthened and will become more alive.

“I pray: ‘Lord, help me always to draw life from Your friendship with me.’”