Date: Sunday, August 02, 2015
It was a special moment and place on vacation. We had walked into Assisi, Italy, passed the Church of St. Clare, and then paused to see the alignment of Jupiter and Venus in the evening sky. St. Francis had devotion to God as creator and appreciation of nature: creation is a magnificent book in which God speaks to us and gives us a glimpse of divine goodness and beauty. In our first reading from Exodus, the Israelites are in the arid desert. They grumble for lack of food. Moses assures them that God will provide. In the evening, they catch quail, migratory birds that land exhausted on the ground. In the morning they find a strange honey like substance made by insects. They ask: “What is it?” or in Hebrew: “manna.” Moses explains that the quail and manna are the food God has promised to give to them. In the Gospel according to St. John, the multitude seeks Jesus in Capernaum looking for another meal to satisfy their hunger. Jesus challenges the crowd to receive the bread of God that has come down from heaven and gives life to the world. They ask for this heavenly bread. Jesus says: “I am the bread of life whoever comes to me will not hunger and whoever believes in me will not thirst.” Jesus is the revelation of God. Like the magnificent book of creation, God speaks to us in Jesus Christ. We pray at Mass to be open to receive the bread which is the living word of God. We pray that we will have a deeper appreciation of creation as God’s gift and the earth as the womb of all life. We pray to rediscover our proper God given role as stewards. Recommended summer reading: “Laudatio Si (Praise Be to You My Lord) – On Care of our Common Home” -- the encyclical of Pope Francis.