I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE. WHOEVER COMESTO ME WILL NEVER HUNGER. AND
WHOEVER BELIEVES IN ME WILL NEVER THIRST.
When faced with serious material and physical problems, we instinctively turn to God to complain, to seek help, to plead, to bargain, or to seek pardon and mercy. In our short-sightedness we often fail to realize that many times, we are much too concerned about material things and have all but forgotten our spiritual needs.
This is one of the reasons why St. Paul today admonishes us to shed off “the old self” and to put on “the new self” – the person whose priorities are determined by the values of the Kingdom. Jesus, in the Gospel, teaches us to set our hearts not on material food, but on the food that gives eternal life.
Today as we celebrate Parish Priest’s Sunday, we are also invited to grow in the full appreciation of all the good that parish priests do for their flocks. Let us take this opportunity to show our gratitude to our parish priest and his assistants for being instruments of God’s care for us. Let us pray that they may be inspired by their patron saint, John Mary Vianney.
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.”
So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” So they said to him, “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven. My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
So they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”
