Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 8/1
In this gospel reading, Christ’s disciples are looking for Him. He appears and they say, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus replies, “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.” The line, “Do not work for food that perishes,” especially stands out to me. Jesus tells the disciples that the reason they are searching for Him is because they found true fulfillment in Him. This makes me think of all the times in my own life when I worked for food that perished, while passing up on the true fulfillment found in Christ.
How often do we all pass up on the real bread of life for cheap imitations that satisfy us for a short period of time. I know that for me, any time in my life when I’ve been filled with the most joy and peace has been times I’ve clung to God. But why is it so easy to slip away, forgetting that true fulfilment for laziness, for social acceptance, or for a brief distraction from suffering? We eat the bread of the world, hoping it’ll satiate us. Of course, it never does and we find ourselves hungry for more.
The disciples ask Christ to give them a sign that they may believe He is truly God. He replies, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” This reminds me of all the times my thirst and hunger pushed me to finally drag myself to confession, force myself to pray that rosary -- to finally come back to God. To finally have that fulfillment I’ve been searching for.
Because it’s always there, isn’t it? That hunger? That thirst? It’s imprinted in every single one of us because we’re made in the Image of God Himself. We were made to thirst and hunger for more. It’s within the very fibers of our being -- to desire the bread of life. Let’s follow that good hunger and thirst. Let us pray that we always follow it to the true source of fulfillment and that He may never let us be filled by anything less than Himself.