Yet again this week we hear of Jesus being chased across the Sea of Galilee by the crowds. The crowds this week are even more amazed however, because they previously saw only Jesus’ disciples leave in a boat, yet Jesus is miraculously now on the other side of the Sea. Thus they ask him “When did you get here?” They are not so concerned about time, but more about the how. Nevertheless, Jesus yet again is able to see through their actions and know their true intentions.
Similar to previous weeks’ Gospel passages, the crowds are drawing to Jesus, not out of faith and devotion, but out of desire to see miracles, signs, and possibly even grab a free meal. The come to him now again because they were fed with the barley loaves or heard about this Rabbi who would feed thousands and are thus driven by desires of the flesh. They are so bold as to question Jesus and mention the feeding of the Israelites in the desert, attributing that miracle to Moses. When in actuality it wasn’t Moses who fed the people but God Himself.
Our first reading from Exodus describes the miracle of the Manna in the desert. We can see similar motivations in the Israelites of that time as well, for they have so quickly forgotten their lives of drudgery and slavery at the hands of the Egyptians and are complaining because the cuisine is not up to their standards. They are so driven by desires of the flesh that they look at their past enslavement through rose colored glasses and say “At least we had plenty of meat and bread.”
Jesus responds to the people present to Him by first saying “Amen, Amen, I say to you…” This phrase is always a sign that Jesus is about to reveal a critical teaching or revelation about who He is. This is no exception, for He testifies that He Himself is the bread come down from Heaven. This is not ordinary bread as the people are seeking but spiritual bread, spiritual food that will last forever.
St. Thomas Aquinas discusses in his commentary on the Gospel of John, the boats that everyone took across the Sea of Galilee. He notes that the disciples of Jesus took one boat, which he states represents the One Church. The others had to wait for more boats to arrive and eventually find their way to Jesus. St. Thomas says these other boats represent heretical groups and the like. We will give him the benefit of the doubt since he was writing in the Medieval Era. Nevertheless, there is something interesting about his analysis. We too can in a sense “miss the boat.” While we are here at Mass, and are card-carrying members of the Church, by what are we motivated? Do we come to Mass simply out of obligation // or driven by some social norm that says nice people go to Church? Some say, “Well, Father, at least people are here.” This is true, and praise God that we are all here and in the practice of consecrating the Lord’s day by attending Mass. However, our presence must be motivated by something deeper.
We should examine our relationship with God. Does God only hear from us when our lives are difficult and we simply complain to Him like the Israelites? Or, do we regularly converse with the Lord, in both bad times and good times? Have we opened ourselves to the true spiritual food come down from Heaven? Or are we satisfied to spend our life working for worldly gain, for the “food that perishes?”
When we come to Mass and receive the Eucharist, we are not simply eating bread. We are physically receiving the True Living God. We ourselves become a living tabernacle, a sacred vessel in which God Himself dwells. Open your souls to Him, let him fill you, that when others look upon you they may encounter Christ.
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