Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Exodus 16:2-4.12-15; Ephesians 4: 7.20-24; John 6:24-35)
People always seek happiness. Many think that money will
bring it to them. So they buy lottery tickets. However, according to the
researchers, those who win the lottery do not stay happy for long. Sure, they feel excited for a while, but before
long their temperaments change. First, the average person who wins the lottery
goes broke within a few years. Another thing is that the lucky winner soon
discovers that money cannot satisfy the heart’s deepest desires. They are like
the Jews in the gospel today thinking that receiving free bread will make them
happy.
Jesus rebukes the people for having sought him out to get
more food. It is not that he wants to deny them the necessities of life.
Rather, he wants to instruct them that the fulfillment of life's purpose lies
not in satisfying the appetites but in believing in him. For this reason, he
proclaims at the end of the passage: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to
me will never hunger ... "
By giving us himself as food, Jesus shows us the need to
sacrifice ourselves for the good of others. God, our Father in heaven, gives us
life as a gift. To thank him for this great benefit we have to give ourselves
to others in genuine love. As soon as we realize this truth, we draw closer to
the Father and we feel His great care for us. We have the examples of the
saints to help us in this endeavor. Father Gratian Murray was a brother of La
Salle who worked for many years in the Philippines. He there he founded an
orphanage. When the bishop asked Brother Gratian to receive ordination for lack
of priests in his diocese, he could not refuse. Then, Father Gratian became ill
with cancer. Medicines came from the United States to cure it. However, Father Gratian
refused to take them because they required him not to drink any alcohol for
thirty days. He said it was more important for his boys to receive Holy
Communion than for him to be cured.
In the first reading the Israelites ask of the soft powder: "'What is
this?'" Moses replies, "'This is the bread that the Lord gives you
for food.'" Scientists today try to explain the phenomenon of bread. They
say that the desert bread is like the resin of the tamarisk tree that has the
texture of wax and melts to the ground with the sun. It may be, but we
Catholics explain it differently. The bread of the desert is a prototype of the
bread that Jesus offered at the Last Supper with his disciples and that is
offered to us in every mass. It is his flesh that, like the bread of the
desert, gives life, not so much physical life but eternal life.
A few years ago, a book entitled White Bread was released. The
author wrote that many scoff at white bread today as non-nutritious, but they
are wrong. He added that white bread is fortified with vitamins and has no
impurities. It is something like that with the Eucharistic bread. Some
non-Catholics think it is of little value. However, we know that its value is
infinite. It nourishes us not so much with physical life but with eternal life.
