Monday, April 11, 2016



Monday of the Third Week of Easter

(Acts 6:8-15; John 6:22-29)

A discount supermarket chain started selling milk for ninety-nine cents a gallon.  Of course, the chain lost money on the milk, but it could tolerate the red ink. Its purpose was to bring shoppers into the store where they would buy other commodities not so inexpensively priced.  It used the low priced milk as a sign of the savings customers could obtain by shopping in its stores.  Jesus explains in the gospel today that his feeding of the five thousand had a similar sign value.

He tells the people that the bread he provided was more than physical food.  Multiplied exponentially, the bread served as a sign of the spiritual food which he always provides.  In other words, the bread that fed five thousand points to love of God’s kingdom.  It, and not lobster or rib-eye, gives life to the full.

When we take Jesus’ body and blood at Mass, we should realize that we are opting for him and not the luxuries of this world.  It is to say that his love is what we most relish in life.