It is sad to see how difficult it is for so many of our people to have food on their tables due to high cost of commodities, not to talk of proper nutrition. There is hunger in the land and as humans, we need any consumable substance to provide nutritional support for our bodies, which is food. If this is lacking we experience malnutrition, which makes us more vulnerable to disease and subsequently leads to death. Today’s liturgy draws our attention to the nourishment given not only to our body but also to our soul. In the first reading, the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron of being hungry and God gave them manna from heaven.
They complained because they did not have enough food, or the food they carried from Egypt was running out and they foresaw the adverse effect of starvation and malnutrition in the wilderness. Consequently, they became so quick to forget the goodness of God who brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. They forgot the miracle of crossing the red sea and God defeating their enemies in attempt to pursue and overtake them. They could no longer believe nor trust in God.
To justify their actions, they twisted their past experience which was negative to support their complains saying, “… for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (Ex. 16:3). In response, the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you… I have heard the murmurings of the sons of Israel; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread…’” (vv. 4;12).
It was a remarkable promise that God will provide for Israel in an unexpected way. When they complained of hunger, He gave them bread; they murmured of eating only bread, He gave them meat and later they grumbled of being thirsty and He gave them water from the rock (Ex 17:6). Some of us hardly express gratitude for so many things we have and complain day and night for the little we do not have. To some of us, God is good only when He blesses us with material needs, but when the table turns around, we seem to forget the goodness God. This complaining attitude of ours is not different from the Israelites. Christ, at the end of today’s Gospel tells us, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst” (Jn 6:35). Before this pericope, John presented the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves and two fish, and the people continued to seek for him so that they can have their daily bread.
They also followed him for other reasons: to see him perform more miracles and to see their ‘miracle-working king’ lead them against the Roman oppressors. When they found him in Capernaum they asked, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Christ responded, “…you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves” (v.26). He seizes this opportunity to give them catechesis on the Eucharist, “I am the bread of life” (v.35). Christ fulfils the promises of God in the first reading, which says, “I will rain down bread from heaven to you” (Ex. 16:4). He is the bread that came down from heaven, which they could not recognize, because they were only interested in satisfying their temporal hunger and Christ said to them, “Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you…” (Jn 6:27).
At this point, Christ made a contrast between material food and spiritual food. The material food gives nutrition to the body while the spiritual food gives nutrition to the soul. They are both necessary, but it is good we take cognizance of priority. While material food or goods are necessary, they will eventually wear out. The Eucharist, however, sustains us spiritually and unites us with Christ, reminding us to prioritize our relationship with God over worldly distractions. We recall the seventh question of the penny catechism book: of which must we take more care, of your body or your soul?
In response, it says, “we must take more care of our soul; for Christ has said, ‘What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?’” (Mt 16:26). When we pay much attention to materialism than our spiritual life, we automatically lose focus on our journey of faith and we lose nutrition to sustain our soul. We must know when and how to strike the balance. Dear friends in Christ, the body and soul are important and must be taken care of because when we lack nutrition in our body, we become physically weak that our immune system cannot resist nor fight any disease and consequently leads to death.
It is more disastrous when our spiritual life suffers malnutrition, we become exposed to all forms of temptation and because the spiritual immunity is weak, we fall into all sorts of evil and eventually destroy our soul. However, the basic medication we need to boost our immune system is the Holy Eucharist, the food that endures forever. As God strengthened the Israelites with the bread from heaven, in a similar way Christ strengthens our body and soul through the Eucharist. Amen!
Happy Sunday!