OUR DAILY BREAD

XVIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: John 6:24-35

For our sustenance, we need our daily food. However, in the world, while many people eat at least three times a day, a good number of others survive on a meal a day, and sometimes they may go to bed on an empty stomach. Some overeat and become obese, while others starve, and live always under the threat of shortage of food.

Today’s first reading (Exodus 16:2-4,12-15) narrates the experience of the people of Israel when they were faced with the reality of hunger, due to shortage of food. They forgot all the great things that God had done for them. In their worries, they accused God of evil intentions towards them: he planned to bring them out of Egypt in order to starve them to death. 

Listening to their complaints, God provided them with food, the food that could be found in the desert. In his provision, God was only giving enough for each day.  Our hearts are never satisfied and we always have a craving for more and more, accumulating far beyond our needs, while others have no way of satisfying their basic needs. God tried to teach the people of Israel to live with what is basic, leaving aside all greed. 

In the Lord’s prayer, “Our Father”, Jesus taught us to ask for “our daily bread”: the food for our bodies and the food for our souls. We need bread, but human beings do not live on bread alone (Mt 4:4). Salvation is much more than the satisfaction of our basic bodily needs. We need the “bread of life”, which only Jesus can give, because himself is the bread of life.

People asked Jesus: “Give us this bread always” (Jn 6:34) We ask as well: Lord, gives us this bread always!

There are so many Christians who do not approach the table of Lord and who are not fed by the bread that He gives – a bread for live, because Jesus himself becomes our food and gives us the willingness and the strength to walk with him towards the Father’s house.