Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The gospel this week is a continuation of last week’s concerning the multiplication of the loaves and fish. Today we hear the Lord’s explanation of his word because surely, he did not come to solve world hunger, not did he come to say: eat, eat, eat! If this was the mission of the Church it would be a failure since the priests, catechists and ministers don’t have this special power to multiply bread and solve the problem of poverty. Imagine if these ministers could multiply $1,000 bill (they don’t make them anymore but if you have a few send them over), how quickly the parishes would be filled. If the Church had the power to multiply money, everyone would follow Jesus Christ since he would be solving their problems. But He is no fool and he wants to use this miracle, this sign to give you and me a much more profound catechesis.
Jesus says: I am the Bread of Life, I am, no one else is!! Are you satisfied today, content, satiated, in need of nothing? If you lived on the true Bread of Life, you would not lack anything! The psalm last week said, if the Lord is my shepherd, then there is nothing I shall want. However, what you hunger for is love and after a few days of getting some we come back again and beg for more, we beg for affection; we want to be loved and so we beg and beg and beg, until we get it.
We are like the blind man on the roadside begging. He could see nothing and was blind from birth. You are blind to the love of God in your lives and so you beg for love, hoping someone will give you a little something. When the Lord passes by this blind man the disciples ask, who sinned he or his parents that he was born this way. Jesus says, neither him nor his parents, you don’t understand anything! It was so that the works of God could be seen. His blindness is so that his cure could give glory to God. No one else would be able to do what Jesus did.
The blind man is like all of you, begging to get a little bit of money of affection from the people around us. And what do you get, some mud in your eye. Imagine this man who is waiting for a coin to drop in his cup and Jesus throws mud in his face and says go and wash in the pool. The man didn’t know what happened. Jesus says go and wash and you will see.
Today’s gospel is very important because Jesus speaks of the work of God, which is to believe in the One he sent! Do you believe in him? To believe is not to use your reason. To believe is to see that Christ exists, that he lived as a man, died and rose for me. So why don’t you believe and why are you in such a crisis? It is because you have not seen Christ! Then you are crazy since for following an idea. You cannot follow an idea of Christ, you need to see him, like the blind man did.
The blind man was interrogated by the Pharisees, and he told them that he didn’t know who cured him. They threw him out of the temple and said he was an imposter. He didn’t know who Jesus was but he said very honestly and without fear the truth: before I was blind and now, I see. Jesus found him in the temple after he had been rejected by the Pharisees, and asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The blind man said tell me who he is so that I may believe in him. Jesus said, “You have seen him; his is speaking to you now.” The man said, “Lord, I believe,” and worshipped him.
Jesus heals the blind man so that he can see because he cannot believe unless he sees. We cannot believe in an idea. Some philosopher said, faith is a leap in the dark. What a ridiculous thing to say. Faith is knowing that God exists that he went to look for you and found you. Faith is something solid, firm! Maybe you believe because your grandmother told you or your mother and it’s good that they told you, but you need to see him because if you don’t see him, you don’t believe. To have faith is to see Christ, to have an experience of him. We believe in him because we have seen his works many times in our lives. Everyone needs to touch him, to see his works in order to believe. This is the way we are.
In today’s gospel the people say to him, “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?” Then Jesus gives them a catechesis: your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but they were hungry the next day. My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. Jesus says, “I am the bread of life that has come down from heaven.” I am! The sign that you are waiting for is that he loves you, that you sense you are his son or daughter. Have you seen God’s love in your life? Have you seen how he sent his only Son for you!
Have you felt judged by God, or have you felt loved? It is easy to see this in your relationships with others. Do you judge them? If so, it is because you feel judged. If you love others, it is because you feel loved; it is that simple. When I see the love of God in my life, then I can say, I believe in Jesus Christ. You can experience it every time the Lord helps you to love the other. This is the real bread that we need. This is what we need to see every day.
When do the people of Israel first start to murmur when they are in the desert? They have just crossed the Red Sea, God has wiped out the Egyptian army and has cast the chariots into the sea and the people say: blessed are you, Lord, you are the one true God, and we are your people. But then after three days the murmuring begins. And with you, how long does the word of God or the action of God last for you. Is it three days or three seconds? Do you start grumbling as soon as you walk out the door.
Hopefully you see that God truly touches your soul and you feel loved when nobody loves you. Only God can love you at that point. Does he love you in the midst of your sins, your lust, your disordered sexuality, your depression, your pride? Do you believe he loves you when he has given you that spouse, that problem son or daughter, that little house. Do you believe God loves you when you see the others are more lovable than you? This is the real bread. He loves you infinitely, in a way we cannot understand because you are so limited. When you eat this bread, you no longer need to beg. The blind man didn’t go back to asking for alms after he was cured. He followed Christ who rescued him out of pure love. He knows who Christ is; he is not an idea, a leap in the dark.
Have you found him within you? It is good for us to reflect on these questions, it makes us feel a bit uncomfortable. Without Christ I cannot do anything. Like the blind man we are begging the idols for life, trying to fulfill ourselves with the loaves of the world; they do nothing for us. Our Lord wants to meet you, to take you out of this pit and help you to see his glory.
The Lord is present here. He will be on this altar in a few minutes. He will be present not only to see him, but to eat him. You can eat the true bread of life. This is what will fill you. When you eat this bread, you will live forever. If you don’t eat this bread, you will not live forever. He is the only one who will give you eternal life, to experience heaven here on earth.
So many saints in the early Church, and even now, who have given their lives for the Eucharist and how often we don’t value it; we so easily skip it or think it is good enough to watch it on the internet. Who is going to help you love your spouse, to be open to life, to be full of joy, only the Lord. If you have serious sins, then confess them, don’t be so proud. All this helps you to be bread for others so that they can also give their lives as the Lord has given his for you and me.