Food for Body and Soul ~ A Reflection on the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Ex 16:2-4, 12-15

Ps 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54

Eph 4:17, 20-24

Jn 6:24-35

Again this week, we are brought to the realization of the importance of food for body and soul.

In the first reading from Exodus, we find the Israelite community hungry; complaining that they should have stayed in Egypt and died there as slaves, for at least they had food there.  The Israelites had lost their trust in God's life-giving care for them during their wandering in the desert.  Hunger can do that to people.

But God had not forgotten them and in a most unusual and creative way, their Heavenly Father provided them with "bread from heaven."

In John's Gospel, we learn what "bread from heaven" truly meant; for the people who had been miraculously fed in last week's Gospel again searched for Jesus and his disciples.  They wished to understand who this Jesus was and how Jesus fit into God's plan for them.  It was a spiritual hunger that now needed to be addressed.

Jesus answered their questions by explaining that the true bread from heaven is the Bread of God that gives life to the world.  Recognizing their spiritual hunger, the people begged Jesus to give them this bread.

We know about this spiritual hunger also.  It is more than the need for food and drink.  It is a yearning that draws us ever toward our God.  How do we satisfy this yearning, this desire for the spiritual bread that gives us life?  Jesus give us the answer in his final words of today's Gospel:

"I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst."

How beautiful this passage; how tenderly Our Lord loves us... to give himself as food in both Word and Eucharist.

We trust his words every time we receive him in Communion, even though we realize we are not worthy for him to enter under our roof.  Jesus desires us to believe in him...He welcomes us with the promise that when we receive him, we will hunger and thirst no longer.


 ~ Image:  MaryOsborn_photos