Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time-B
“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” These words of Jesus today in John’s Gospel are as astonishing as how the son of a carpenter from Nazareth can have such great wisdom. Or, by what power does the person of Jesus have in forgiving someone’s sins? How can Jesus tell us we will never hunger or thirst?
The problem of hunger is seemingly never-ending. From political corruption in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas steals aid from its citizens, to sixteen other hunger hotspots from Africa to Haiti, worldwide inflation is causing hardships for families to meet their nutritional needs. We may hear of these stories sporadically reported in the media and may have a twinge of conscience, but soon, we forget and move on to other pressing matters, oblivious of the gaping hole of our need to be fed.
Last week, Jesus took a few loaves of bread and fish, said the blessing, and multiplied them enough to satisfy the crowd with some of the food left over. And yet, the crowd yearned for something more; the crowd was still hungry because ordinary bread and fish would never satisfy their desire. The only food that can satisfy the existential need is the bread from heaven.
In the first reading this morning, the Israelites were told the only way to break from the bonds of slavery was to follow Moses into the desert. They had to leave all that Egypt meant to them—slavery, sure, but also a guarantee of food every day. They had to leave all that, good and bad, and enter the desert’s emptiness and nothingness. Even there, God provided for them by giving them manna and quail before they came to the promised land. Their journey would be an example of what a Christian life should be like.
Unlike a geographical place, we are called to the promised land of heaven. The story of the Israelites is the same dynamic for those who seek heaven. We rarely reflect on the things that give us immediate satisfaction without realizing that those things enslave us, all the while constantly feeling famished. We convince ourselves that our homes, cars, and other things can satiate us. But those who break from the mold through faith and courage realize they feed themselves with fool’s gold. The inherent contradiction of trying to feed the existential hunger with temporal goods has led many to mental illness and drug abuse, an epidemic in a world that has rejected God as the source of life.
When Jesus preached to the crowds that he was the bread of life, he offered them a means of satisfying their ultimate hunger. By sharing his life through the Eucharist, we are already, although not entirely, in the promised land of heaven. Jesus assures us this statement is true in the same Gospel of John. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”
By partaking in the Eucharist, our ultimate hunger is satisfied, and our ultimate desire for life is promised. We no longer need to find inferior substitutes to fill these needs; it is open to all who believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. But first, we must enter into our deserts by adequately evaluating the pleasures we enjoy and have used as a crutch to ward off our hunger. Only then can we understand what Jesus means by calling himself the bread of life, and those who eat this bread will never hunger or thirst.