The WORD today (see http://usccb.org/bible/readings/080215.cfm) reminds me how powerful Jesus is – the Bread of Life
Food gives energy. For people who train and exercise, it is important that they eat properly, so they would have nutrients and energy to train. When I eat properly before training and going to the gym, I feel that I have more energy to do physical activities. And when I don’t eat well or eat properly, I feel weak and not in the mood to exercise or train. In the first reading we see God feeding the people with this similar food. They never got hungry and had energy to do their work and continue in their journey. However, eventually they got tired of this and rebelled against God.
As the new testament is the fulfillment of the old testament, we see that Jesus in the new testament gives us the new version of the food from the old testament. In the gospel, we see something more important and nourishing than food. Jesus was telling people about a food more powerful and more important than the usual - Jesus, the bread of life. He will never make us hungry and thirsty.
Jesus gives us power to do great things for God’s kingdom, no matter what the cost is.
IF we focus on Jesus and partake of him, the bread of life, then we will always be nourished. We are blessed that as Catholics, we believe that the Eucharist is the actual body and blood of Christ, and not just a representation. And everytime during Mass, we have the opportunity to partake of it. As we take him it, as we allow him to consume us, we will never be hungry for God, and will never thirst for God, because he is always with us. He can always be with us if we let him. IF we have him in our lives, He can use us mightily to further his kingdom. We will know how important God’s kingdom is, compared to the here and now.
May we make the most of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, and allow Jesus to consume us and use us.
Father God,
Thank you for today. Thank you for another day to live. Thank you for another Sunday thank you for the reminder. Thank you for the opportunity to be consumed by you in the Holy Eucharist. Lord, thank you for loving me and sharing your love and power with me. Help me focus on you, the bread of life, as I live. May I have the desire to always partake of the Eucharist. Consume me, Lord and make me more and more like you. May my love and desire for you continue to grow day by day. AS I do so, I allow you to take over me and use me to further your kingdom. Amen
Blessed Sunday!
In Christ,
-g-
Ps
See related reflection:
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August 2, 2015
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 113
Reading 1 Ex 16:2-4, 12-15
The whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
The Israelites said to them,
“Would that we had died at the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt,
as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!
But you had to lead us into this desert
to make the whole community die of famine!”
Then the LORD said to Moses,
“I will now rain down bread from heaven for you.
Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion;
thus will I test them,
to see whether they follow my instructions or not.
“I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites.
Tell them: In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh,
and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread,
so that you may know that I, the LORD, am your God.”
In the evening quail came up and covered the camp.
In the morning a dew lay all about the camp,
and when the dew evaporated, there on the surface of the desert
were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground.
On seeing it, the Israelites asked one another, “What is this?”
for they did not know what it was.
But Moses told them,
“This is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54
R. (24b) The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
What we have heard and know,
and what our fathers have declared to us,
We will declare to the generation to come
the glorious deeds of the LORD and his strength
and the wonders that he wrought.
R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
He commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven;
he rained manna upon them for food
and gave them heavenly bread.
R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
Man ate the bread of angels,
food he sent them in abundance.
And he brought them to his holy land,
to the mountains his right hand had won.
R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
Reading 2 Eph 4:17, 20-24
Brothers and sisters:
I declare and testify in the Lord
that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do,
in the futility of their minds;
that is not how you learned Christ,
assuming that you have heard of him and were taught in him,
as truth is in Jesus,
that you should put away the old self of your former way of life,
corrupted through deceitful desires,
and be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
and put on the new self,
created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth.
Alleluia Mt 4:4b
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
One does not live on bread alone, but by every
word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Jn 6:24-35
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.”
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