John 6, 24-35:
Sunday, August 1st, 2021 (18th OT B)
Last Sunday’s readings told us about the multiplication of the loaves and fishes and how Jesus withdrew from the crowd “because they wanted to proclaim him king”.
Again the crowds look for him, meet him and he takes the opportunity to guide them: “work for the food that endures, giving eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you”. The people had taken in the “miracle”, but they had not grasped the “sign”. They are unable to interpret it as realised by the One sent by God. They had grasped neither his person nor his mission. So much so that they ask him: “What signs are you doing that we may believe in you?”, and they compare him to Moses and the manna in the desert. Jesus will tell them that if the manna was the proof that God cared for his people in the desert, now God gives them the true Bread of Heaven, Himself, to be believed in: “I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. “Lord”, they said to Him, “give us this bread always”.
“Give us this day our daily bread”. Not only the material bread, but the bread of the Word and of the Eucharist, which are the nourishment of our faith. Bread that enables us to see our brother’s and sister’s need and to share with them. May we not be content to be satisfied with this bread ourselves, but may our own life, nourished by Him, be the sign that leads others to recognise Him as “the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world”.
Juan Ramón Gómez Pascual, cmf
