August 18, 2024
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My Dear People:
In the Gospel this last Sunday, Chirst comes to encourage the people and to teach them that He is the Bread of Life who will sustain them in their pilgrimage toward eternal life. It’s difficult for the crowds to understand this teaching: they know Jesus, where He is from, who His parents are, so it’s hard for them to believe He has come down from Heaven. Imagine that scene: our Lord, in front of the incredulous crowd, does not grow weary. Instead, He keeps on insisting that He indeed is the Bread of Life. Christ knows God the Father has already prepared them for this moment – Elijah and Moses! All they had to do was to give Jesus at least the benefit of the doubt that He was not talking. Their earthly knowledge and reasoning are not enough: it’s time for faith. It’s not just a faith born in a vacuum: they’re receiving grace to help them believe and be open to the Heavenly Father’s messenger. If they open their hearts to the Father, the Father leads them to take the next step. They must believe in his Son, not just as a sure guide in their pilgrimage to eternal life, but as their nourishment to be able to undertake the journey back to God!
In proclaiming Himself the true Bread from heaven that gives true life to the whole world, Christ is telling the people about what makes for a true happy blessed life. He is telling them that believing in Him will put them on the path to ever-increasing happiness in this life, and total fulfillment in the life to come.
“I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE. . . . I AM THE LIVING BREAD THAT CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN; WHOEVER EATS THIS BREAD WILL LIVE FOREVER; AND THE BREAD I WILL GIVE IS MY FLESH FOR THE LIFE OF THE WORLD.”
What is telling the crowd today, He has already told Martha before in her home one evening: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of one thing only.” Christ saying to her and to the crowd and to us today: I have the only thing that will truly satisfy your heart: my friendship! I alone respond to the deepest desire of your heart. If you don’t accept, you shall never experience life as it should be lived. Accept my friendship by receiving the gift of my Body and my Blood and you shall have life in you.
At this moment, you are sitting here in church listening to me – a routine you have always done! But is it? The fact is, this evening, Christ bumps into your life and your life bumps into Him. And the reason for this colliding is precisely so that “you should learn to understand that He is the central point of everything, of the whole of your life. Christ is the Life of your life! In Him is summed up all that you would desire, all that you look for, all that you would be willing to sacrifice for. Christ is the Life of your life; He is the certainty of a good destiny; He is companionship in everyday life; His is the efficacy of an amazing friendship that transforms all things into good.”
Do you understand that? What can there be for you and for me outside of this One that is the only thing necessary? What is being asked of you and me was asked of Abraham, Moses, Joseph, Mary, Martha, Peter, Saul, and countless others: Do you truly accept me as the only One necessary, the only One you need. Do you understand and accept that I AM enough for you? “What Jesus is in Himself, His Divinity, His divine Sonship, His Being the Word of God, His becoming a man, His dying on the Cross, His rising from the dead: these are all for you and for me – individually. How do you respond? How do I respond?"
And so, I have to make a decision. And you have to make a decision. For me, that decision is this: Yes, Lord, I believe! Although I don’t understand everything, yet I believe! To whom shall I go? You have the word of eternal life! Please help me see in my life, in the way my life unfolds from day today, that You are the only one thing I need, that you are the Resurrection and the Life, that You are the true Bread from heaven that gives life to the whole world!
Let me end with a quotation from a great priest! “When you have decided to invite Christ to come into your life and create in it a new order, then it becomes a fixed and stable center, and everything orders itself around it! Life becomes ordered with harmony and beauty, even in the midst of great turbulence, when we truly welcome Christ into ourselves, our life, all of life, as the one thing necessary, as He who alone responds to our heart’s need for meaning and life. Everything falls into place around Him, in relation to Him. Only Jesus knows the right place for each of us and for everything that makes up our life, be it your hair or your wife, your shoes or your work, coffee or politics . . . everything!”
Let us give Christ preference over everything, in every situation, in every circumstance, before every decision, and in front of every temptation! Let us prefer nothing to Christ!
Padre
