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8/1 - 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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As human beings, we hunger for many things besides food and material possessions. We hunger to be recognized and honored, to love and be loved, to be listened to and to be appreciated, to connect with people, and to receive gratitude. On a deeper level every human being needs spiritual resources to help heal the painful wounds of grief, guilt, resentment, unforgiveness, self-rejection, and shame. But only God can satisfy our various forms of spiritual hunger. St. Augustine said: “O God, You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You” (Confessions, I, 1.).
Today’s Gospel presents an introduction to Jesus’ famous discourse on the Holy Eucharist in the form of a dialogue between Jesus and the Jews who had gone around the Lake and come to Capernaum searching for him. The people were looking for a repeat performance of their miraculous feeding. In answer to their question, “Rabbi, when did You get here?” Jesus told them that they were only looking for another free meal and that such meals would not satisfy them, saying, “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for Eternal Life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him, the Father, God, has sent His seal.”
Though identifying Himself as “the bread of life” (v. 35), Jesus is not yet speaking about the Sacramental Eucharist in this part of his Eucharistic discourse. Here, the emphasis is placed on the Faith-acceptance of the teaching of Jesus. In other words, Jesus offers us the life-giving words of God about the meaning of our lives. His message only gives life when we accept it and when it leads us from selfishness to selfless and sacrificial service for others. Jesus states that He is the Bread of Life only for the one who “comes” to and “believes” in Him (v. 35). Jesus offered to satisfy the spiritual hunger of the people gathered around on one condition. They must believe Jesus is the “One,” that is, the Messiah, sent with the message that God is a loving, holy, and forgiving Father, and not a punishing judge. Belief in Jesus is not simple intellectual assent, but an authentic, total commitment to Him of loyalty and solidarity. There is no reference yet to eating His Body or drinking His Blood, which will come later.
It is easy to accept Jesus as a great teacher or spiritual guru. But this discourse is challenging the people around him and us the twenty first believer to move to a faith encounter. “I AM the Bread of Life”: throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus uses the expression “I AM …” seven times (indicative of completeness), to introduce various key images by which He describes His person and His mission: “I AM … the True Bread … the True Light … the Gate … the Way … the Good Shepherd … the Resurrection and the Life … the True Vine.” However, on an even deeper theological level, the Greek expression egô eimi (“I am”) relates back to the scene (Ex 3:14), when God tells Moses to use this name (a shortened form of the Divine Name YHWH, “I AM Who I AM”) in asking Pharaoh to free the enslaved Israelites. “I AM” is, therefore, an explicitly Divine title, and by using it repeatedly throughout this Gospel, Jesus is making a radical claim to BE the God that the Israelites had known in the time of Moses and the Exodus. (Dr. Watson Murray).
To enter into the realm of faith is not easy as we tend to live and think primarily with sensory perceptions and intellectual acumen. When we accept the divinity of Christ in faith, we move towards the dimension of living in depth. We are asking him to guide and lead us. We are accepting that we do not know enough to make the final moves and so we need to pray. We then begin to live like spiritual beings in a material body with its physicality and needs, but still aware of our spiritual depth and connection with the divine creator.