Today’s Gospel leads on from that of last Sunday, in which we heard about Jesus feeding several thousands of people with a miracle.
The action of sustaining those people – not least in a culture where life was hard and food could be scarce – drew many to Jesus. They began following him because they knew He was good for them. He provided not only spiritual words of nourishment, but actual physical nourishment.
It is as though they know it is good to follow Jesus, but they do not know quite why. They are doing it, drawn by the miracles of sustenance alongside his teaching.
Today, we hear Jesus change a gear in his discourse with the crowd. He explains that:
‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never be hungry; he who believes in me will never thirst.’ suddenly, they hear him explain why they should follow him. He will meet all their needs. Spiritual first and foremost, but through the spiritual comes the temporal.
Do not, he says, work for food that cannot last. Set your sights on the greater good, and through that you can attain the Kingdom of Heaven.
We, too, may learn from this. How often do we strive for temporal things when it is God we should be seeking? Even within the Church, how often might we cling to the comforts of community life rather than use the opportunity to attain God? We may not always go to Church for the purest reasons, maybe. We may think we are special because of the duties we have at Church, and this can blind us to the truth of his love.
Through today’s Gospel, Jesus is asking us to realign with him, to reset our list of requirements and goals, that he may be at the forefront.
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you.
And with your spirit
A reading from the Gospel according to John 6:24-35
Glory to you, O Lord.
When the people saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into boats and crossed to Capernaum to look for Jesus. When they found him on the other side, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?‘
Jesus answered:
‘I tell you most solemnly, you are not looking for me because you have seen the signs
but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat.
Do not work for food that cannot last, but work for food that endures to eternal life,
the kind of food the Son of Man is offering you, for on him the Father, God himself, has set his seal’
Then they said to him, ‘What must we do if we are to do the works that God wants?’
Jesus gave them this answer, “This is working for God: you must believe in the one he has sent.
So they said, ‘What sign will you give to show us that we should believe in you?
What work will you do? Our fathers had manna to eat in the desert;
as scripture says: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’
Jesus answered:
‘I tell you most solemnly,
it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven,
it is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven, the true bread;
for the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’~
‘Sir,’ they said ‘give us that bread always.’
Jesus answered:
‘I am the bread of life.
He who comes to me will never be hungry; he who believes in me will never thirst.’
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.