August 4
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
“The Lord gave them bread from heaven.”
Readings
Reflection
Bread: we all need it to sustain our lives and to keep our bodies functioning and energized. It doesn’t matter what diet we are on, or if we do not even have a diet. We are given life through our intake of food that nourishes us and brings us health and vitality.
This week we continue the “bread of life discourses” with Jesus speaking about the need that we have for his body–the bread of life. It is significant that we have recently completed the Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis Indiana and have focused our prayers and thoughts on the Eucharist here at Holy Cross Church.
Our readings this week are centered on the idea that Jesus himself; body, blood, soul and divinity gives us the ability to continue to live as spiritual creatures. In our first reading from the Book of Exodus, the Jewish people are traveling through the wilderness after their miraculous escape from Egypt and they complain that they have nothing to eat. So the Lord provides them with manna–bread from heaven–to satisfy them. In the second reading, St Paul tells us that we must “put on a new self,” drawing closer to Christ and to the eternal life he has promised to each of us.
In the gospel passage from St John, we see Jesus telling the people that he, himself, is the bread of life. This meeting takes place directly after the miraculous feeding of the five thousand that we read about last week. As Jesus tells us: “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” The food that endures is his body–the Eucharist. What Christ gives is eternal and comes from God. That bread is given to us at every celebration of the Mass and it will bring us eternal life. Let our thoughts this week focus on how Jesus gave his body for us, and how his sacrifice brings us spiritual nourishment and great graces.
Keep the faith,
Deacon Dare
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