Hungry?

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

05 August 2018

First reading                                                                     Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15
The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not.
“I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’
In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.

Second reading                                                     Ephesians 4:17, 20-24

Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

That is not the way you learned Christ! For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Gospel                                                                     John  6:24-35

So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”

Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. or it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Reflection

By Jessa Janelle Padilla

In our daily lives, we may came to a point wherein we are not able to compromise things and situations that we are in. We complain and compare things. We are hungry and thirsty of worldly desires. We find ways to get ourselves full and comfortable without sometimes realizing that only Jesus can make us full and comfortable in His loving arms.

In our First Reading today from the Book of Exodus, the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. They said that it is better that they had died at the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt than to die of famine in the desert. When in Egypt they can sat by fleshpots and eat bread as much as they want while in the desert there are neither fleshpot nor bread to eat.  Why would God lead us to an unbearable situation when we are already okay with our lives? We complain and may be tempted to say ‘Just kill me so I don’t have to be living like this.’ Don’t we realize that He is leading us to such kind of situation to test us? To test our patience, test our capacity and capability to handle situations? He will never persecute and leave us alone. We have Him beside us in every step that we make. Whenever we experience this kind of situations, we must keep our grip tighter and bear in mind that after we survived this we will become stronger, wiser, and faithful servants. Also, the Lord may not provide us exactly what we want and what we ask but He surely provides us with what we truly need. Like how He provided the Israelites with quail and fine flakes for them to eat.

In the Second Reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, Saint Paul says that if we have heard and were taught by Jesus we should put away the old self and be renewed in the spirit and put on the new self, created in God’s way of righteousness and holiness of truth. We must put this into our hearts and minds, and practice what Jesus taught us. How can we be renewed if we keep on being stubborn? We need to listen to His words and reflect on it for us to change. It is not a one-night process but can be done little by little until we can fully change our way of life.

In today’s Gospel from Saint John, the disciples followed and looked for Jesus when they cannot find Him. Are we also looking for Jesus’ presence in our life? Are we hungry and thirsty for His presence? Let us feed ourselves with the bread and wine from heaven.

There are times that I felt Jesus’ absence in my life. The times when He took away from me those whom I loved that I almost gave up serving Him. But I realized that I would not overcome those moments if He was not around. He is really present in my life but somehow, I overlooked Him. We all have different kinds of thirst and hunger because of our worldly desire but can we not become thirsty and hungry for His words? for His Body and Blood? for Him? Are we going to look for Him when we cannot find Him? Yes, we should look for Him since He is the only One who can satisfy our hunger and thirst. He is the only One who can give us a fulfilled life. He is the only one who can complete us. As St Peter Julian Eymard once wrote: "Live on the divine Eucharist, as the Hebrews did on the manna. Your soul can be entirely dedicated to the divine Eucharist and very holy in the midst of your work and contacts with the world."  

Jesus is the Bread of Life and whoever comes to Him will never hunger and whoever believes in Him will never thirst.

Prayer

Dear Jesus, we thank You for giving Yourself to us as our Bread of Life. Your presence in our lives keeps us full even if we are hungry and thirsty. We can overcome all obstacles because You guide us and walks along with us in our every step. All praise and glory to You in the Most Blessed Sacrament! Amen.