18th Sunday of Year B; 1 August. 2021

let us through the today's Eucharistic celebration, realise that Jesus is the true bread of life that nourishes us. May we listen to him as he feeds us with his words/teaching and may we renew our relationship of faith when we come into contact with him in the Holy Communion.

Happy Sunday!

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

        Exodus 16, 2-4.12-15; Ephesians 4, 17.20-24; John 6. 24-35; 18th Sunday of Year B; 1 August. 2021)

On this Sunday, the liturgy offers us the beginning of Jesus' discourse on the bread of life. Since he speaks of the bread of heaven, the first reading presents the account of God’s gift of manna to his people in the desert. The second reading deals with Christian conversion: it is necessary to put down the old man and put on the new man created according to God.

        Manna is a great gift that God gives to his people in the desert. The people complain that they have nothing to eat, and were tempted to go back to Egypt to be able to eat to their fill. But God intervenes and offers them food in the evening and bread in the morning. The meat is given in the form of a quail cloud, which covers the camp. In the morning the people see a layer of dew, which leaves on the earth something as minute as frost and grainy. The Israelites, surprised, say to each other: Man hu: what is this? Moses explains that it is the bread that the Lord gives them as food. Manna is a wonderful gift from God, which allows the people to continue their journey in the desert without suffering from hunger. After the multiplication of the loaves, Jesus retires to the mountain, all alone. Then he walks on the water to reach the disciples who are on the boat, and finally, together with them, he reaches the shore of Capernaum. The people who participated in the multiplication of the loaves realised that he and the disciples were no longer there, and they went looking for them in the direction of Capernaum.

In today's Gospel passage there is a dialogue between the crowd and Jesus. Twice Jesus corrects the crowd's perspectives and their way of understanding things. Instead of answering the crowd's question, he immediately makes a critical remark: Verily, verily I say to you: you are looking for me not because you have seen signs, but because you ate those loaves and were satisfied. So, he reproaches people for not having grasped the meaning of the miracle, but for having only taken advantage of the situation: they ate the loaves that he multiplied, they were satisfied, and no more. Instead, this miracle is a sign of a spiritual gift that Jesus wants to give to people. Jesus, true bread of life, wants to satisfy not only the body but also the soul, giving spiritual food that can satisfy the deep desires of men. Therefore, he invites people to procure not the food that perishes, but that which lasts for eternal life. People listen to this reproach, understand that Jesus wants to talk about conversion and ask: What must we do, to do the works of God?. To this question he again gave an unexpected answer: This is the work of God: to believe in him who he sent. Jews are very concerned with fulfilling the law, doing the works of God, and they think that the relationship between God and men is like that between a master and his servants: the master assigns the work to the servants, and they do it. So, they want to know from Jesus what actions they have to do to be in good standing with God, but Jesus changes the perspective, saying that the work of God is to believe in the one he has sent. Here there is a change of perspective, because, according to the words of Jesus, faith is a gift from God. Certainly faith is a reality that a person must welcome actively, but fundamentally, it is a gift from God, a work of God himself. This is the idea of faith that we too must have: a work that we do with God, a work in which the main actor is God, and in which we are his simple collaborators, adhering with trust to the person of Jesus and, through him, to God. Since Jesus spoke of faith, people are now asking for signs. In the Gospels it often happens that people ask for signs in order to believe. Here they say to Jesus: What sign do you make because we see and can believe you? What work do you do? ». For the people, if Jesus demands faith, he must carry out a work that is a sign of his authority, and power. The people challenge Jesus: Our fathers ate manna in the desert, as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat'. Manna was a wonderful food, because it came from heaven (he rained manna on them for food and gave them heavenly bread, as we read in the responsorial psalm of today's Mass). But Jesus again corrects the people’s perspective, saying that manna was not really a bread from heaven, but a material bread. The bread from heaven, on the other hand, is a spiritual bread, a bread that makes the soul live. Jesus himself is this bread. He was sent by God to be the food of our souls. Therefore, he says to the people: It is not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the bread from heaven, the true one; the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Here Jesus gives us a very important revelation: he is the true bread of heaven given by the Father; it is a gift from God for us, which communicates to us the true life, the spiritual one, the life of profound relationship with God, the life of faith, hope and charity. It is a wonderful thing to be able to have this bread from heaven. Therefore, the people immediately ask Jesus: Lord, always give us this bread. And Jesus reiterates: I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will not be hungry anymore and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. Jesus is the one who can, truly, satisfy our deepest desires. With other people or things we can find superficial satisfactions, but not the full and profound satisfaction for our life; therefore, we always remain in a situation of hunger and thirst. On the other hand, whoever fully welcomes Jesus into his own life is not hungry and thirsty, because his deepest desires are satisfied. We ask the Lord to let us be guided by him, to be oriented towards true adherence to him in faith and to find profound peace.

In the second reading Paul invites us to dispose of the old man with his conduct, the man who corrupts with his deceiving passions, and to renew ourselves in the spirit of our mind, to put on the new man, created according to God in justice and true holiness. This new man is Christ. We must clothe ourselves with him (cf. Rom 13,14; Gal 3,27), because Christ is truly the new man who gives us a new heart, communicates to us the new spirit, the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we must abandon our too human and too narrow perspectives. We need not be concerned with material satisfaction, but must seek to adhere in faith to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He is the bread of life, which satisfies our deepest desires, most essential needs and will give us perfect joy in heaven.

John I. Okoye