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Gospel: Jn. 6:22-29
[After Jesus had fed the five thousand men, his disciples saw him walking on the sea.]
The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea
saw that there had been only one boat there,
and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat,
but only his disciples had left.
Other boats came from Tiberias
near the place where they had eaten the bread
when the Lord gave thanks.
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.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Saint Augustine once wrote, “Our hearts are restless, O LORD, until they rest in you.”
Augustine’s words ring true throughout the centuries. Regardless of where a person is born or when, how much fame, fortune, or lack thereof they may have, there remains a restlessness in the human soul which the world cannot satisfy.
Another author described it as, “a piece of night inside, which can never be filled – not with all the good food or sunshine in the world.”
We all know it.
Some fight it. Others ignore it. Still others stuff it with things.
Christians seek to fill that void with Christ.
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In today’s Gospel, thousands of people are looking for Jesus. The Lord just fed them with five loaves of bread and two fish. Now they’re looking for more.
Peering into their hearts, seeing that their minds remain fixated on physical things, the Lord gently rebukes them, saying, “Do not work for food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life.”
Otherwise, more will never be enough.
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Are we satisfied with only the things of this world? Or do Augustine’s words resonate?
We may have the best of marriages, the best of friendships, all the creaturely comforts we need. While these are blessings – and can help draw us closer to the Divine – they cannot bridge the gap.
We need Jesus himself.
As the Psalmist prays, “Hear my voce, LORD, when I call; have mercy on me and answer me. ‘Come,’ says my heart, ‘seek his face’; your face, LORD, I seek.”
May Christ reveal himself to us in the still, silent moments of prayer … and in this Eucharist which we are about to receive.
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Image credits: (1) I Still Haven’t Found, LinkedIn, U2 (2) Jesuit Spiritual Center at Milford, WordPress, Quotefancy (3) Digital Songs and Hymns