The crowd said to Jesus: “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 Jesus, “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.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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In the office, I’m becoming known as the “Amazon pastor.”
Do we need something? Let’s just Amazon it!
Pens, paper, big items, small items, whatever it may be.
The truth is, you can Amazon almost anything.
Imagine if we could Amazon happiness. Buy now with one click! How many of us would add that to our cart?
Name the price. We’d pay it!
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Unfortunately, we know that isn’t possible. Human happiness cannot be purchased because we’re not that shallow; we were made for more.
We need friends; love; support; purpose.
Ultimately, we need intimacy with God.
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In today’s Gospel, Jesus promises, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”
Unlike Amazon, which may satisfy us for a day, Christ promises to satisfy for a lifetime.
That doesn’t mean that we pray once and are filled. The Lord gives us our “daily bread,” enough grace to satisfy us for a day.
Then we must return to him tomorrow.
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Have I found that Jesus satisfies me?
As the Psalmist says, “Of you, my heart has spoken, ‘Seek his face.’”
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I may be the “Amazon pastor.” If there’s something materialI need, that’s often where I’ll shop.
But one thing we all want, which Amazon can never sell, is a share of human happiness. For that, we must turn to Jesus.
As Saint Ignatius of Loyola once said, “Your love and your grace. That is enough for me.”
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Image credits: (1) Open Cart (2) Holly Cardew, Medium (3) Sacred Heart Catholic Parish, Punta Gorda
[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
The two disciples recounted what had taken place on the way, and how Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of bread.
While they were still speaking about this, he stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” But they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. Then he said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.” And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them.
He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said to them, “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Have you ever wondered what heaven is like? What the body of Jesus is like now that he’s been raised from the dead? Or, even what our own bodies will be like in the resurrection?
Today’s Gospel provides some answers to these questions, even if it leaves us wanting to know more.
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It begins with the disciples hiding behind locked doors in Jerusalem. The grim reality of Good Friday is still fresh in their minds and hearts. Jesus is gone, leaving them with no real plan moving forward. They’re terrified.
Stuck.
What once seemed like a bright and promising future has come crashing down on them. The only strength they have is in numbers; if they are to shiver and grieve, then they will do it together.
Suddenly, the Lord appears in their midst and says to them, “Peace be with you.”
This is the first word that Jesus says after being raised from the dead – a word he repeats multiple times – peace.
In Hebrew, shalom.
Shalom means, “harmony, wholeness, stillness.” Things the disciples feel totally deprived of. Yet the Lord appears to reassure them that he has, in fact, been raised from the dead! All will be well.
Gently, our Good Shepherd begins leading his friends out of their fears – and eventually out of that locked inner room – into a place of freedom and peace, showing them his glorified body.
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Since his resurrection, the Lord has already demonstrated his ability to locate his disciples and to walk through walls, suddenly appearing in their midst.
Now Jesus reinforces the physical nature of his body. “Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
I imagine a few of them poke at his skin, then marvel and joyfully weep as they gently slide their fingers into his wounds.
The disciples grieve and celebrate.
They grieve the death of their ideas; Jesus is not who they thought he was. He is far more. Meanwhile, they also celebrate his triumph over death, as they slowly begin to understand.
The Lord is physical, yet spiritual. Human, yet divine. Once dead, now alive. Seeing him allows them to see what their own future holds.
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In his book, Surprised By Hope, the renowned biblical scholar NT Wright argues that, in the resurrection, God has redeemed all of creation.
He echoes what Saint Paul says, “All things were created through Christ, all things were created for him… in him everything continues in being.”
Meaning, everything, and hopefully everyone, God has created – even our favorite pets – will enter into eternal life, making heaven a place that will be utterly familiar… yet utterly new.
Imagine the bluest waters. The brightest sunrise – orange kissed in pink, red, and gold. A place where the lion lays down with the lamb, the deepest valleys are covered in lush green grass, the highest mountains tower over us – yet we can climb them all.
Heaven is a place where our bodies are no longer bound by aches, age, or death. As the prophet Isaiah foretells, “They shall run and not grow weary. They shall walk and not grow faint.”
As the Apostle John describes in the Book of Revelation, heaven is, “radiant and clear as crystal, a city with twelve gates and high walls, protected by angels.”
A place where every tear is wiped away; where there is no more wailing, pain, or death. A place for the poor in spirit, the merciful, the peacemakers, the clean of heart, those whom Jesus calls in his first public sermon, “blessed.”
“Peace be with you,” he says. “You have faith in God. Have faith also in me. In my Father’s house, there are many dwelling places.”
There’s a place for the Apostles now weeping joyfully in Jerusalem. A place for you. A place for me. A place where we shall, “run and not grow weary. Walk and not grow faint.”
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Perhaps these thoughts leave more questions than answers.
Still, today we’re urged to rejoice in the words of Saint Paul, “Eye has not seen and ear has not heard what God has ready for those who love him.”
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Image credits: (1) The Bible Study (2) The Doubting of St. Thomas, Caravaggio (3) AM FineArtPrints
