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August 01, 2021

18th Sunday Ordinary B

On Thursday July 29 we celebrated the feast of St. Martha of Bethany – sister of Mary and Lazarus. Martha is remembered in the Gospel according to Luke as busy preparing food in the kitchen while Mary is seated among the disciples listening to Jesus. Martha and Mary represent two human needs – nourishment of body and soul. Last Sunday Jesus fed the hungry multitude with five barley loaves and two fish. Today, when the crowd seeks him out for more food, another free meal, Jesus encourages them “not to work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life…” They ask: “How can we work to gain this food from God.” Jesus answers: “This is the work of God, that you believe in the One he sent.” They recall how their ancestors ate manna in the desert. Jesus reminds them that it was not Moses who provided the manna, the bread from heaven, but God! They request: “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus says: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

Hunger is a primary human experience. So many people in the world are in a constant battle to meet their need for food to survive. There are people in our country who go to bed hungry. Once our fundamental need for food and shelter is met, we are free to begin to think beyond our craving for food and to aspire for food that nourishes our minds and souls. The expression “food for thought” is the yearning within us to learn and to know. Immigrant families set a priority on education. We are partnering with Our Lady of Hope Parish, Buffalo by providing school supplies for children from Sudan, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Coupled with “food for thought” is “food for the soul”. It may well be the deepest hunger of all, that is, our search for meaning, for a sense of belonging and for God. We see this “searching” apparent in the Gospel according to John with the two disciples who break from the Baptist to see where Jesus lives; with Nicodemus, a religious leader, who comes to Jesus at night and sees the light; with the woman in Samaria who comes to the well and encounters Jesus the source of “living water”.

St. Paul writes to the Ephesians “to put away the old self of your former way of life…and be renewed in the spirit of your minds…” Paul reminds the Church at Ephesus that they can no longer live like the Gentiles do, but “how you learned Christ.” It is an odd expression: “how you learned Christ”. Paul is urging the community to live according to how they learned Christ. It is more than knowing things about Jesus. It is knowing Jesus as the One, who God, the Father, sent into the world. “Learning Christ” nourishes our souls and gives us a taste of eternal life.  

We ask: “how can we come to know or learn Christ?” A special place of encounter is right here at Mass when we break open the Bread of the Word and the Sacrament of Eucharist. We learn Christ by receiving him and becoming friends. When we receive the Bread of Life, we learn that it is not something we can hold on to but must share.    

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19th Sunday Ordinary B