18th Sunday of Ordinary Time, B July 25th, 2021
Fr. Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
“You are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled.” Is that what you’re doing? I said last week that hunger and need is good… that we actually should be hungry for what Jesus offers. It’s still true, but hunger can also mislead. This crowd begins with a willingness to sacrifice food to get to Jesus but ends up following Jesus precisely because he can give them food.
That’s me! I have done that and still do. We come to Jesus, we come to Mass or prayer or confession for the right reasons… at first. Sorrow for sin, a desire for holiness, affection for Jesus. And when we do, sometimes at least, we are consoled, we are satisfied in more ways than one. Confession can be cathartic… it can cause a person to experience psychological relief. It can feel good to know that someone at least has to listen to us. Mass can be uplifting. The music might move us or we might just enjoy the taste of the host. For someone fresh off of conversion, prayer is interesting and the sacraments fascinating.
These aren’t bad things. In fact, many of these overlaps are on purpose. The emotional reward of doing these things is great, but we human beings can get lost in them. At some point, Jesus will challenge us. Are you praying because you want to talk to Jesus? Or because you really want the good feelings you got before? Are you at Mass to worship God and offer your life in sacrifice to him? Or because you like the music, the preaching, or the people in the pew? Are you going to confession to get away from sin or just to get close to the emotional release? Do you love God or just the things he can give you?
Again, these are good things, but they are not the best thing, they are not the main thing. And putting them first leads to slavery. Just look at the Israelites in our first reading. They just saw ten miraculous plagues, witnessed the parting of the Red Sea, walked through the sea, and watched the water wash away pharaoh and his army. They were slaves; now they’re free. But now they’re also hungry. Suddenly, they wish they could be back in Egypt, willing to be slaves again because at least they were well-fed slaves. They even say it would be better to die with a full stomach then live with a little hunger.
Hunger is good because it makes us search, but too much attention to that hunger can blind us to what matters, make us focus on the gift instead of the one who gives it. Rather, if we want what is best, we will work for “food that endures for eternal life.” Admirably, this crowd tries to understand, “what can we do to accomplish the works of God?”
“This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” Pay close attention to that. To believe in Jesus requires work. Belief is not passive agreement… it is not an idle thought. It is the fruit of effort. Again, the crowd does well because they respond with effort, with a desire to succeed in that work of belief. “What sign can you do?” Help us out here, help us believe! Still further, they point to a specific example of a previous leader in the bible. Moses gave them manna in the desert. These Jews knew that God promised to send a prophet like Moses, a new leader to save his people. So, if Jesus is this messiah savior, they want to see him do what Moses did.
Of course, it wasn’t Moses who gave manna; it was God. Jesus makes this clear and then says exactly what they were hoping for: “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.” Naturally, they respond “give us this bread always.” “I am the bread of life.” Now we will start to see the crowd get lost: “what does he mean ‘I am the bread of life?’” But we know what he means. The Eucharist is the new manna, the bread from heaven. There’s more to it, though. In the desert, through Moses, God promised more than manna: “in the evening twilight you shall eat flesh.” For the Israelites, this was fulfilled with the quail that showed up in their camp. For us, however, it drives home the foreshadowing of the Eucharist. It is not only bread from heaven; it is also flesh, the flesh and blood of Jesus who is the bread from heaven. It is just more evidence that the Eucharist is not something made up after the fact, but something God planned from as far back as Moses and even before then.
The point is threefold. First, do not get caught up in earthly things. So often, people begin to lose their faith when they lose something in this world. Their health fails, they lose a loved one, they get fired, the house burns down, or they just hit a tough spot in life. Feelings of betrayal well up. They’ll make comments like “he let me down” and says things like “I was good, I followed the rules, I went to Mass and everything went bad.” Those feelings are real and they have to be dealt with, but they also reveal something. They reveal the assumption that our religion, our relationship with Jesus is a trade: I follow the rules, Jesus makes me successful/happy/healthy/etc. In other words, I follow him because he feeds me earthly things and when he doesn’t feed me what I want to eat, I decide to walk away. That’s not the Catholic faith.
Secondly, if we’re going to avoid this trap or get past it once we’re caught, then we need to work for eternal food. That is the work of belief. Again, not a passive agreement. St. Paul in the second reading puts it this way: “assuming that you… were taught in [Christ]… be renewed in the spirit of your minds… created in righteousness and holiness of truth.” Taught. Minds. Truth. If we want to avoid disappointment, we need to do the mental work of learning about Jesus, learning to think like Jesus. Saying “I believe” doesn’t make it true. Asking questions, seeking answers, challenging cultural assumptions – that’s what faith looks like.
Third and finally, Jesus helps us with that belief in two ways: by fulfilling Scripture – he is the new Moses who gives the new Manna – and by giving us the Sacraments. You can literally seek the food that endures to eternal life: the Eucharist. Mind you, receiving properly means changing lifestyles that bar us from communion and it means going to confession regularly. Even without receiving it, simply visiting the Eucharist to pray can help us move closer. Whether the community or the music or the preaching is good or bad, whether we get emotional or not, it is Jesus who matters. Which do you come for? What you can get from Jesus? Or for Jesus himself?