August 4, 2024

18^th Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)

Our Understanding…Low or Lofty?

Msgr Thomas Gervasio

 
If another film or mini-series were produced about Our Lord’s life, the title might be one word: “Misunderstood.” Jesus was often misunderstood throughout his public life.
 
Last week we heard that after the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, the people wanted to make Jesus a king, but he escaped to a place of solitude. Today we hear that the crowd went in hot pursuit of Jesus, determined to proclaim him king. After all, if he could feed 5000 with five loaves and two fish, then he could surely provide them with all sorts of things beyond their imagining. Once the crowd found him, Jesus wasted no time in unmasking the crowd’s true motivation: "You are looking for me not because you saw signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled."
 
They misunderstood Jesus because they were operating on a purely material or earthly level. They were motivated by self-centered, self-absorbed concerns. They were looking too low. So, Our Lord wanted to set their sights higher: "Do not work for the food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you…It was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven, says Jesus, my Father gives you the true bread from heaven...I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst." He made himself the true food. Yet, the crowd thought that when Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life” he was simply referring to the source of their next meal. They failed to understand the deeper message.
 
The manna that nourished the Israelites in the desert and the loaves multiplied for the 5000 were a foreshadowing of what was to come—the Holy Eucharist. It would not be ordinary, perishable bread for the body, but a heavenly bread for eternal life…because it would be Jesus himself: body, blood, soul, and divinity.
 
We are not very different from the crowd in their misunderstanding. Like the crowd, self-centered and self-absorbed concerns often motivate us. What are those things that invigorate us…those things upon which we spend so much of our time and energy…our treasures? Our Lord said, “For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.”
 
Unlike the crowd that pursued Jesus, let us not look too low, attached to those things that are fleeting and perishable. What we make our treasures can weigh us down and hinder our spiritual growth.
 
Today Our Lord invites us to set our sights higher to see what does not perish, to ponder what is eternal. He invites us to rediscover in the Eucharist our true treasure. It is the gift that endures, transforms, and sustains us because it is the gift of Jesus Himself.
 
I like St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross’ reflection on this gift and mystery. She was born Edith Stein and was a German Jewish philosopher who converted to the faith and became a Carmelite nun in 1935. Because of her Jewish origin, she was arrested by the Gestapo and was murdered in the Nazi gas chambers in 1942. She was canonized in 1998. She wrote: “It is most important that the Holy Eucharist becomes life’s focal point: that the Eucharistic Savior is the center of existence…that every day is received…that the day’s happenings are deliberated with Him. In this way, God is given the best opportunity to be heard in the heart, to form the soul, and to make its faculties clear-sighted and alert for the supernatural.”
 
Lord Jesus, help us grow in our understanding and love of the wondrous gift you have given us in the Eucharist, the Bread of Life. Pardon us for the times when we looked too low and have chosen the wrong nourishment for our lives. Forgive us for those moments when our prayers have been full of requests without thanks for the blessings you bestow. Help us keep our sights high to pursue all that will nourish our faith and love for you who offer us in the Eucharist the surest way to heaven.