A friend of mine was telling me that he was just back from vacation where he had been mountain climbing with a German priest friend of his. They were somewhere in the mountains on the Austrian-German border. His friend had a map, but it was five years old and one of the paths they took turned out to be very dangerous. It was basically no longer usable. He said that for most of it there was a rope on one side for safety, although there was a sheer drop on the other side, but then they came to a place about 15 feet long where there was no rope, so they just had to cling to the side of the cliff on this extremely narrow ledge until they got past it. He told me that it was quite terrifying and a matter of slowly taking one step at a time, then finding proper hand grip, then another step. By the time he got to the far side he was quite exhausted and traumatised, but what interested me was that his friend, who is an experienced mountaineer, then told him to sit down and that they should eat something. When you have been through an experience like that, eating changes your metabolism and calms you down. And he said that it did just that. Within a short time he was fine again. He needed food to sustain him and help him continue.
There is a story in the Old Testament where the prophet Elijah is on the run, having just worked a miracle calling down fire from heaven and showing up the false prophets, but now Queen Jezebel is out to kill him. So he escapes into the desert, but at one point he sits down feeling depressed and prays to God, ‘Take my life, I am no better than my ancestors’, or in modern English, ‘I wish I was dead; I can’t do this anymore.’ Then he lies down and goes to sleep. But then he is woken by an angel who tells him to get up and eat, so that he will have enough strength for the journey. He finds food beside him. So he eats and then goes back to sleep. The angel wakes him a second time and tells him again to eat, so that he will have enough food for the journey. So he eats and then sets out on a long journey as the Lord commanded him. He needed the food to fulfil God’s will for him.
In this Gospel passage Jesus is just after working the miracle of feeding five thousand people with the five loaves and two fish and the people come after him to see more of this wonder-worker. However, as is often the case, the miracle Jesus worked was pointing to something deeper and he says to them, ‘You are only looking for me because you got free food, but you didn’t see the “sign.” What ‘sign’? What was he talking about? And then he says, ‘Don’t be worrying about temporary food, but look for the food that endures forever.’ The miracle of multiplying the loaves, was a sign of something deeper. Jesus then begins to teach them that there is another kind of food that we need for our whole life; not just material food that you eat, but spiritual food/nourishment, which brings meaning/purpose/direction. And then He tells them that He is this food which lasts forever. This is the kind of food we need for the journey which is our whole life. Jesus is the one who gives us strength and meaning, to help us keep going. He is the one who makes sense of what our whole life is about. If you don’t have the right kind of meaning or purpose for being here, then it is very hard to keep going, especially when things don’t make sense, as they so often don’t.
Sadly we see more and more suicide around us and I have no doubt that one of the reasons is because people have lost faith and don’t have the kind of spiritual nourishment that they need. People are spiritually starving and have lost their way, their sense of purpose. When we are suffering, we need strength that will carry us through. If we have faith in Jesus and what He taught, namely that we are here for a purpose, that everything here is temporary and that our true destiny is in heaven, that changes our whole outlook on life and how we live. If this life is everything, then it is a cruel existence for a great many people, because most people suffer a lot.
One of the evils of communism, is that it denies the existence of God and it denies that people have souls. If that were true, then we are just animals that can be used by the government for their purposes. Without God, human dignity disappears. But if we have souls and will live forever, then everything we do here matters and even the worst of suffering that we have to face is temporary.
It is interesting that in the second reading (Ephesians 4:17, 20-24) St. Paul says, ‘Don’t live the kind of aimless life that pagans live.’ That is exactly what can happen to us if we lose sight of our faith, or get too caught up in the world and worldly worries. We forget what the real purpose of our life is about. You see this happening all the time, especially when the economy does well. Many people got completely carried away with money and forget themselves. When times are harder it’s a lot easier for us to focus on what is really important.
God is showing us that to have the right kind of strength for the journey, we need the right kind of nourishment, and Jesus is this food. ‘I am the bread of life’. That is why Jesus gives himself to us in the Eucharist and speaks to us through his word, so that we have all the nourishment that we need for the journey. If we know what our life is about, then we won’t get side-tracked by earthly things. There is nothing wrong with the things of the world, or with riches, if we are free to enjoy them and I don’t mean being in a free country, I mean interior freedom. If we understand why we exist and what is coming next, then we can enjoy the things of the world as God intended us to.
Passing on the faith to those who come after us is equally important. One of the best things you can do for your children is to give them a good grounding in their faith. They may not be that interested now, but when they get older and they are faced with all the struggles we all go through, they will have the inner strength they need if they have faith. The consequences of not having any faith is what we see all around us, where people have lost hope and many despair. It is not meant to be that way. If children see their parents and grandparents living their faith, it will become real for them too.
When they are at school age, there are so many other interests and hobbies pulling them in different directions. When football practices and other sports are on Sunday mornings, it is extra hard for parents to make time for church, but our faith is not just another interest or hobby for them. Our faith is about the purpose of our whole life.
If we focus on God first, we will begin to discover that He will look after all of these needs as well. Jesus must be at the centre, everything else comes second.
I am the bread of life.
Whoever comes to me will never be hungry;
Whoever believes in me will never thirst.
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