Gospel Reflection August 4 – Father Lynch
Sunday, August 4
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
John 6: 24-35
Gospel:
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.”
So they said to him,
“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 him,
“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.”
Gospel Reflection:
In one of the greatest scenes in the Gospel of John, Jesus teaches in both His Word and His Action that he is the fulfillment of the Promise God made to Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, and the Israelites so long ago. It is a promise that all the prophets of the Old Testament spoke about. The promise is that the Messiah of God’s people would be sent to satisfy all who hunger and thirst.
This promise created an unquenchable desire that would last for all generations, until God’s promise would be fulfilled. In the meantime, those who believed would not be satisfied.
John shows us this here today. It is part of the 7 different scenes in John’s Gospel called the “Bread of Life” discourses. Jesus feeds his people. God loves us so much, that he sent His only son to satisfy our unquenchable thirst, just as He did with the crowds. It is a hunger and thirst for unity with God, satisfied every time we receive Jesus in the Eucharist. It is an eternal heavenly satisfaction that only God can provide.
The catechism teaches that the Eucharist is the central mystery of our Faith. So let us embrace Jesus, as he always embraces us. Let us receive the Bread of life and become for others that which we receive.
Jesus’ revelation to the people, his disciples, and us is simply this — that He is the sign that everyone has been looking for, they just don’t see it yet, and “believe in me and the one who sent me, and you will be satisfied from any hunger or thirst.” And when the people respond to Jesus that they want what he has to offer, he says “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”
St. Brigid of Kildare, pray for us.
Father Tim Lynch