02/08/2009 - 18th. Sunday in Ordinary
Season - B
Ist. Reading Ex 16,2-4.12-15 Psalm 77 2nd. Reading Eph 4,17.20-24 Gospel Jn
6,24-35
"Give us this day our daily bread". Once I use to think: finally
Jesus asks us to ask something for ourselves. It is true that our instinct is
inclined to think that to pray mean to ask, to present to God our needs and
our sufferings, as if he doesn't know, or doesn't see and doesn't give us enough.
We are always a bit pagans, easily we forget that our God is our Father, and
we worry. Now Jesus wants to teach us how to present our needs to God. He himself
had said to his disciples: " ask and receive, knock and it shall be open
to you", and he even told them parables to help us understand how much
the Father is ready to listen and answer our prayers, like a father that answers
the needs of his children. He wants us to grow in trust, in a simple and true
way, towards the Father, like a child. Its because of this that he teaches us
how to ask from God. First and foremost he teaches us to pray in the plural,
because we are not the only ones who are in need, and because we don't live
alone, but we belong to a family. In this family we are to express a solidarity
with all and share in each other's joys and needs, in this family we are all
brothers and sisters. If, in a family, one is hungry, all are to worry for the
one, all are to suffer the same hunger, and if one has food, this is to serve
all. Jesus gave an example in the distribution of the five loafs and the two
fish. Hence, when we ask something from the Father, we are to ask it for all
the human family. And if we need to as the Father for something, we are to ask
him for what we really need: that's why we ask for "today" and the
"daily", that is the necessary for the day, and not to accumulate,
neither to enrich ourselves. And tomorrow? Tomorrow the Father is still Father,
and so we ask him for ourselves and for our brethren. But the words of this
prayer challenge us with more questions. Who are "we" to whom the
bread is to be given? What do we really understand by the word "bread"?
Is it only the 'bread' we eat or something else? And that "today"
is really today, this moment we are living?
Both the Reading and the Gospel speak of bread. The Jews complained against
Moses and Aaron because as they were journeying in the desert, they got hungry.
They cry their time in Egypt where they lacked no bread or meat: even though
they had no freedom, especially the freedom to serve the Lord and hence no possibility
to obey his commandments. Their complains sound like a mistrust in God, like
when one prefer the material wealth in place of the spiritual wealth, idols
instead of the true God. Its not God's will that his people suffer lack of bread
or meat: its enough to trust him and pray with humility. The one who thinks
only of the material bread, risks to remain without the spiritual food. It is
the situation in which we are living today, that is, of spiritual poverty. We
don't lack bread, we don't lack meat and not even superfluous things, we don't
lack the interior freedom and the ability to listen and to love God and Father.
Perhaps we lack the communion with others. This is shown in the solitude, for
which we cannot complain with God. If we listen to him….there would be joy in
the people of God, the joy of those who know that they are not alone because
of the many brothers and sisters.
The Gospel speaks of the comment Jesus did to the same sign he did and for which
the people were looking for him. It's a surprising word, because those who were
looking for him, think only of bread to eat, and they still want more of it
from him. Instead they should busy themselves with the "food that remains
for life eternal": this is what he wants to give. He wants to give it because
it's the only "bread" that satisfy fully, and makes one fulfilled
in all areas of life. Only he can give to man this bread, and this is his life:
"I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me wont have hungry and whoever
believes in me wont' thirst, ever"! We, who have experience a life with
Jesus, know how much he is a precious and true bread. What would our day be
without him? What would be our relationships without him? What would our society
be without him if not a place of enmity, disorder, diffidence?
The apostle Paul challenges the Christians to change their lives: today we say,
he challenges them to change their bread, to change the food they are feeding
themselves on. They live like the pagans, but this has nothing to do with being
Christians. Who knows Jesus and listens to him, lives in a different way than
all the others who follow their natural passions. Often it is said: "everybody
is doing so", and so we justify several superficial behaviors; even if
everybody is doing so, we as believers in Christ are not to do like everybody!
We distinguish ourselves from all, because we feed on another bread, because
we feed our man within, who is new, with a different bread. We strive to be
like God because we know that we are his children. This likeness is fully realized
by Jesus, and so we look at him and let him come in us through the way of love.
He will help us through our brothers or by an inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
to live from dawn to dusk in a "new" in relation to those who don't
have Jesus. This is expressed by the way we spend our time, the way we welcome
others, the way we dress ourselves, the way we face fears and anxieties caused
by the bad and sad news of everyday. The joy of being feed by Jesus becomes
a security from within and a disposition to love every person with whom we meet.
Thank you, Jesus, you are the true and living bread!