by Fr. Tommy Lane
Last Sunday we interrupted our reading of Mark’s Gospel this year to read John 6 and we continue reading John 6 today (6:24-35) and for the next three Sundays. Today we listen in on a conversation between Jesus and the crowd on the day after the multiplication miracle we heard last Sunday. The crowd thinks in earthly terms and Jesus keeps elevating their thinking to the spiritual:
They wanted to know when Jesus arrived at this new location and Jesus said to them not to work for the food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life.
They asked Jesus how to do the works of God and Jesus said to believe in the one sent by the Father, to believe in him.
They asked for a sign to believe in Jesus; their ancestors ate manna in the desert. Jesus said the bread of God comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
They asked for that bread and Jesus responded:
I am the bread of
life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever
believes in me will never thirst.
So, Jesus is continually trying to raise them up above earthly understanding to think in a more spiritual way. Jesus is trying to move their thinking from where they are currently to a new way of thinking and does so by using the everyday language of hunger and bread they can understand just as elsewhere Jesus used parables to move their thinking along. Later in the chapter, next Sunday and the following Sunday, Jesus will move their thinking higher again when he will talk more explicitly about the bread as the Eucharist (John 6:51-58). Every day we get hungry, and we eat bread. But Jesus is challenging to think of another hunger, a hunger for God in our lives, hunger for peace in the world, hunger for happiness and wellbeing and Jesus is the bread to answer that hunger.
Again and again in his teaching, Jesus was challenging to raise our thinking to a new level. A number of times he said, “You have heard it said…but I say to you…” (Matt 5) We have many concerns and worries but Jesus said on another occasion, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given you besides.” (Matt 6:33) How much more peace and happiness there would be in the world if everyone sought first the kingdom. Since God loves us infinitely, surely God’s way is worthy of our consideration. The rebellion of our time against God is not bringing deep peace but deep unhappiness. How long more and how much worse does it have to get before people will, like the prodigal son, realize that the secular nonsense and rebellion against God of our time is getting us nowhere? It’s time to return to God. We are one of the richest countries in the world but if we admit it, there is a lot of unhappiness. The happiest people are not always the richest people. Happiness is in God.
Our second reading today also challenges us to adopt the thinking of Jesus:
you must no longer
live as the Gentiles do,
in the futility of their minds. (Eph
4:17)
you should put away
the old self of your former way of life,
corrupted through
deceitful desires,
and be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
and put on the new self,
created in God’s way in righteousness
and holiness of truth. (Eph 4:22-24)
A popular reading at funerals is the one about a time for everything; there is a time to be born, a time to die, a time for tears, a time to laugh (Eccl 3). It is from the book of Ecclesiastes or Qoheleth as it is also sometimes called. Everything happens at a time that is fixed and decided. For that reason, Qoheleth finds life meaningless. Why? Because everyone must die. The book could be seen as pessimistic. That is why Qoheleth says repeatedly in the book, “Vanity of vanities.” Because of the pessimism of the book, there was a debate among the Jewish leaders for a couple of centuries about whether to allow it into the Old Testament. It finally made it in. Qoheleth was struggling with the meaning of life because he lived a couple of centuries before Jesus and did not know that he was really searching for Jesus and searching for the resurrection. It seems to me that there is a similar search going on in the world today—a search for Jesus and alas many are not looking to Jesus for the answer though here are there some are returning to the faith again in our time acknowledging Jesus is the answer. It seems to me that many are living through what Qoheleth experienced and some are finding that God is the answer to the emptiness of life and that Jesus really is the bread of life. So, although the Jewish leaders almost did not allow Qoheleth into the Old Testament, it is good that they did because his struggle is reflected in the struggle of many today.
Jesus is the answer to all struggles. Don’t give up; stay with Jesus. He is the answer:
I am the bread of
life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever
believes in me will never thirst.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2024
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Eighteenth Sunday of Year B
Jesus is the Bread of Life and his words our nourishment 2021
Keep me company in the Blessed Sacrament
Related Homilies: Jesus’ sermon on the Eucharist 2011
Homilies on the Eucharist Stories about the Eucharist