BCL Newsletter Week 31

The episode in today’s gospel occurs shortly after the feeding of the five thousand and when the crowd assembled, their minds were still thinking of the feeding and inevitably that turned their thoughts to the manna in the wilderness. They could hardly help connecting the two things. Among the Jews, manna had always been regarded as the bread of God and there was the belief that when the Messiah came, he would again give the manna. The giving of the manna was held to be the supreme work in the life of Moses and the Messiah was bound to surpass it. 

Jesus came to people according to their need. When the crowds came looking for Him, He examined their motives. What was it that they really needed? They were looking for Him he concluded, not because they had seen the signs, but because they had all the bread that they could eat. When their physical hunger gave way to a deeper spiritual hunger, Jesus could come to them as the bread of life. It is often when our various physical appetites have been fully satisfied that we are ready to go deeper, we are ready for more wholesome, substantial food.

Quite often to be discontented is a blessing. It often is the forerunner of a call to begin searching for something deeper. The realisation that material things cannot satisfy the deep hunger that is within us is a lesson that frequently takes a long time to learn. Living in a material world where we are surrounded by advertisements that assure us that it we have A or B our happiness will be guaranteed, plays on our subconscious minds and helps to lure us into the false hope that acquisitions will give us the happiness that we crave. However, we know that they cannot.

The people Jesus encountered, those he fed with bread, demanded more so that they could believe, when, all along, that 'sign' they so desired was right in their midst. We can miss the moment because we are either looking for the wrong thing or in the wrong place. We fail to appreciate that the ground on which we walk is already consecrated – God is to be found in the here and now, if only we are open two what it has to offer. Jesus fed the people with bread and they were stuck on that, because they were concerned only with satisfying their physical hunger. They failed to see that it was Jesus who could give them the true bread, that is, eternal life. Despite all the things God has surrounded us with, we still ask for new and wonderful signs. We have to trust in God's providential care without feeling that he has to do something grand for us to believe. In any case, we need only look around to see all that God has already provided for us.

“whoever comes to me will never be hungry”  (Mk 6:35)