4 August 2024 - 18th Sunday "B”
Ex 16:2...15; Eph 4:17-24; Jn 6:24-35
Homily
There is a sometimes subtle but important distinction between faith and superstition. Superstition consists in seeing extraordinary and miraculous interventions by God in everything we cannot explain. Faith consists in believing that God is our father, that he is the master of everything and everyone, and that consequently all the manifestations of his creation are ultimately manifestations of his love.
The Bible does not claim to be a treatise on the natural sciences. So when we read a text like the one about the giving of the manna during the Exodus, it is possible to recognise in it a phenomenon that can be explained naturally. However, this does not change the meaning of the biblical account. The meaning of this phenomenon, for the biblical author, is that it was perceived by the Jews as a manifestation of divine attention towards them.
In the Gospel, when the Jews follow Jesus because he has shown them signs and, in their superstition, they want to see even more signs, or simply, after the multiplication of the loaves, because they still want to eat, Jesus recommends that they get not only material bread but bread that lasts for eternal life. Now, this spiritual bread is the faith that enables us to do the works of God, that is, what God has commanded.
The Father loved us so much that he gave us his Son. And what have we done with him? He created us in his image and likeness, and what have we done with that image in ourselves and in others?
To those of us who have food to eat - natural bread and the bread of the Word of God - Jesus reminds us that we too must give to those who have not. We must share the Eucharistic bread and the bread of the Word of God through our lives; that is to say, we must pass on in our lives what we receive during this Eucharistic celebration; but we must also give of our material possessions to those who have none, following the example of Christ who stripped himself of everything in order to give himself to us. His call resonates with particular force in a world like ours, where today a quarter of humanity suffers from hunger or malnutrition.
In this Gospel, Jesus invites the crowd -- and therefore us too -- to think no longer only of the material food, but of the One who gives it. And when the Jews ask him to give them the "bread of life" of which he speaks, he replies: "I am the bread of life" -- a phrase as powerful and revealing as "I am the light of the world" or "I am the good shepherd".
Let us no longer live as in the Old Testament, expecting everything to fall from heaven like manna. Instead, let us live as in the New Testament, giving generously of ourselves to one another, as Jesus gave himself to us and for us.