How often are we like the crowd……….

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

EXODUS 24:3-8
The whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “Would that we had died at the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!” Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will now rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion; thus will I test them, to see whether they follow my instructions or not. “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them: In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread, so that you may know that I, the LORD, am your God.” In the evening quail came up and covered the camp. In the morning a dew lay all about the camp, and when the dew evaporated, there on the surface of the desert were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground. On seeing it, the Israelites asked one another, “What is this?” for they did not know what it was. But Moses told them, “This is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.”

Ephesians 4:17, 20-24
Brothers and sisters: I declare and testify in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds; that is not how you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard of him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus, that 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.

John 6:24-35
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. 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 set his seal.” So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” So they said to him, “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father 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.” So 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 hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

Today’s Gospel reading is an intriguing pericope which built on the incongruous dialogue between Jesus and the crowd. In directing their questions to more important issues, Jesus’ convoluted responses are also directing us today.

How often like the crowd, we approach Faith with inappropriate questions. Jesus ignored the crowd’s query about His means of transportation and bluntly pointed out the core of their problem----they were seeking Him for the wrong reason. Are we the same too? Are we looking for Jesus because we believe in Him or simply to get what we want from Him?

In addition to the wrong reason, the crowd focused on the “wrong bread”----bread that only satisfied temporarily and perished. In our materialistic world, we too may easily misplace our attention on only tangible things and neglect our spiritual needs. Does the saying that "man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Deut 8:3; Mt 4:4) still hold true in our hearts?

The crowd was wrong again when they misinterpreted Jesus’ words about “work” (v 27). They thought they could “work” the work of God to gain for themselves eternal life. In our present culture which advocates self reliance and self worth, we are too tempted to think likewise, not realizing that this is exactly the reason why Jesus came---to do what we cannot do for ourselves----to save us from sin and death.

Forgetting the sign that Jesus just did in feeding the multitude, they wanted a repeated sign of the old days, a sign they preferred. Does this sound familiar? Many times we overlook God’s signs that are happening before us, but instead, we prescribe the condition for God before we believe Him.

The Samaritan woman (Jn 4:15) asked Jesus for the living water and the crowd asked for the “wonder” bread. But anyone who understands properly Jesus’ words will have prompted faith instead of just eagerly obtaining the “free gift” as immediate solution. We too are often tempted to obtain what we want in an easy way. The “free gift” from God is Jesus Himself who, “satisfying the desire of every living thing” (Psalm 145:16), is truly the bread from heaven----the Bread of Life. To obtain this “free gift” requires us to open our eyes to see, our ears to hear and our hearts to receive.

May Tam

May Tam, Bachelor of Social Science (University of Hong Kong), Master of Theological Studies (University of Toronto)

MORE ARTICLES