In God Alone is Our True Fulfillment

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 01 August 2021

Readings: Exodus 16:2–4, 12–15; Psalm 78:3–4, 23–25, 54; Ephesians 4:17, 20–24; John 6:24–35

(Mosaic "Jesus Shows the Way" by Fr Marko Rupnik, SJ)

To listen to my audio reflections please click here 

1. Jesus is the true salvation

The request of people to Jesus “Lord, give us this bread always” (John 6:34) is reassuring us on this Sunday as we worship the Lord. We are often torn between dichotomies or polarities of life, right and wrong, good and bad, life and death, eternity and temporality, order and chaos, true and false, universality and particularity and so on. Unfortunately, it is quite hard to choose which is life-giving, eternal and reassuring in our rat race of everyday life. In fact, we end up choosing conducive, easier, attractive, newest, best, modern, up-to-date, cheapest that give higher status, wealth, power than which is difficult, unattractive, and needs our effort and labour. We seek the perishable stuff of our every day wants, needs and anxieties. In our weakness, we think these things are what really satisfies us.

This is what exactly happens in the liturgical readings of today. Moses, Jesus and Paul tell us how choosing the right over the wrong, lasting over the temporal are so essential for a fruitful life and to find an end in God. They remind us that too much dependence on the things of this world is not good for us because the world is untrustworthy and fails to truly satisfy us. The world's values and the activities that flow from them are only dead waste and block our progress towards God because we limit ourselves by choosing them. 

Jesus again says, “do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life” (John 6:27).  As a miracle worker Jesus received a lot of attention and popularity among the masses; his performances become an end in themselves. People are not ready to move with him and his teaching, instead, they get stuck with the miracles and signs. They follow him for wrong reasons in satisfying their physical needs. The miracles and signs that Jesus performed were mere pointers to the heaven or salvation that Jesus was showing to them. They see the finger and not the direction that the finger is pointing at. Their immediate, first and foremost interest is material and physical benefit than spiritual gain. This is where Jesus admonishes them to look for something that gives life, total and permanent fulfillment.

2. Jesus is truly the Son of the Living God

Jesus is quick in expressing his disappointment at the way those who received benefits from him started behaving. Jesus is here to inculcate the lasting ideals among his flock. His desire and mission is to bring all the sons and daughters of Abraham into the loving embrace of God. The signs that Jesus performed were mere help in pointing towards the heavens. John's gospel is very particular in indicating at Jesus who he was. As the identity of Jesus gets many interpretations and diluted with his miracles and other signs as wonder-worker, St John redirects the attention on the person of Jesus. Because Jesus is everything, the true prophet who would lead all to God, truly God's very son, a true God. The pointing of St John about Jesus is that he is not just a miracle worker, not just one among the many in the line of prophets of Israel, not merely a miracle worker or a philanthropist. In today's Gospel passage, Jesus is the true Manna, an authentic bread that came down from heaven, a true Messiah. Jesus even reminds people that he is not like the manna the Israelites ate when they were on the way to the promised land. In other words, Jesus is the everything of everything.

Another captivating message today's readings would like to give us is that our attention should be fixed on God. It is not the temporal things that satisfy us or will lead us to God but only those eternal or salvific things which truly bring peace and happiness, joy and love. In the miracle of the multiplication of loaves, people saw only bread that would satisfy their immediate hunger. Jesus is saying to us that he has much more than the food that he has in offer. It is not the free food that Jesus delivered must be the reason to be after him but the wisdom and truth that he spoke to us. Therefore every activity of ours, every effort of ours must have the focus of our attention. Our own human existential life shows us that we are not permanent here on earth. God is our ultimate. God is our future. God is our salvation. In God is our true home. 

3. Jesus is our ultimate choice and ultimate joy

Our life is full of choices. We are also blessed with the intelligence to choose what is best for us. However, the choices that we make must not determine our future or life instead, the choice that God has made for each one of us that is being created in his own image and likeness. Our life choice here on earth is to strive to live that image of God here on earth with all our capacities and possibilities. The choice that God has made for us is the right one. The number of times the choices that we make are for our own selfish gains, immediate happiness, and momentary joy. If we take up the choices that God has made for us and follow that choice then certainly we truly find the ultimate joy. The ultimate end of God is also the ultimate joy of our life. St Paul in his letter to the Ephesians invites us who are baptized in Christ Jesus "to put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness" (Eph 4:24). In other words, to see everything with the eyes of Christ Jesus. 

The words of Jesus must encourage us as oftentimes we too lose sight of Jesus:  “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst" (John 6:35). Jesus is not just a socio-religious reformer or revolutionary, a compassionate good person, a role model but Jesus is truly the Son of the living God. We are not followers of a Jewish social reformer but disciples of a Master who showed the way to God because He Himself is God. This is the heart and core of our faith. On this foundational faith assertion, we must build our life as Christians and followers of Jesus. For Jesus himself has said, "I am Resurrection and the life" (John 11:25). In Jesus, we discover true holiness. Our spiritual progress must include inculcating in us purity, transparency, openness, humility, patience, love and so many other gifts that the Spirit of God continues to instill in us. In God alone, we can find true fulfillment of all our desires. 

Questions for Reflections:
1. What do I personally feel the Spirit calling me to, here when Paul says "to put on the new nature"? 
2. What is my ultimate goal when I make choices?
3. What are those things that bring me true happiness and joy?

4. What is your experience of Jesus lately?

Prayer:

Dear Lord our God give us true wisdom to discern what is right and wrong, good and bad, life and death, eternity and temporality, order and chaos, true and false. Thus we may not fall into the darkness of empty desires and hollow attractions of this world.  

God of love, Father of all, the darkness that covered the earth has given way to the bright dawn of your Word made flesh. Make us and all who confess your holy name people of this light. Make us faithful to your Word that we may bring your life to the waiting world. Grant this through Christ our Lord. AMEN.

- Olvin Veigas, SJ

31 July 2021