Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Aug 2, 2015
Reading 1 Ex 16:2-4, 12-15
Responsorial Psalm Ps 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54
R. (24b) The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
Reading 2 Eph 4:17, 20-24
Alleluia Mt 4:4b
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Jn 6:24-35
Homily— August 1 & 2, 2015
In the first reading from Exodus we see the Israelites in the desert & they are out of food. It did not take long for them to complain to Moses and Aaron. They began to think a life of slavery was better than being free.
On Thursday night I watched a short film on human trafficking & heard a young lady from Dubuque share her story of what happened to her as she lost her freedom. She began by smoking marijuana as a teenager at a party in which she was drugged & found unconscious in a park. She then moved on to cocaine as she tried to cover up what had happened to her & to bury the inner pain. She ran away with a drug dealer. When she was addicted he forced her to do things she did not want to do to receive her next fix. It was only through hitting bottom and encountering a caring policeman that she was able to turn her life around. Sometimes we do not know how good our life is until we become addicted to something that takes away our freedom. Remember that God wants us to be free to make good choices not slaves to pornography, drugs, gambling, alcohol, sex, nicotine, e-cigarettes, consumerism, materialism, etc. She was told that she was no good and did not deserve anything better. Teach your children that they are of great value & treat them with respect so that when someone tries to destroy their self-esteem that they will resist. Children need to know who to listen to and who to trust so they are not led astray. It is easier to never get addicted to something than to let our curiosity get the best of us and try something that takes away our freedom and then we have a battle to get free again.
John Martens in America magazine wrote, “There is a fine line between having what we need to sustain our physical existence & feeling we just do not have enough. Or is that line the one where we want more and more? Once we cross that line, as individuals and as societies, to where our most notable identification is as a consumer, it can be difficult to cross back. Once this takes place, the most surprising of things begins to happen: Our own sense of worth and value can be tied up in things we own and things we buy. Even sadder, though this is sad enough, we begin to see other people as valuable on the basis of their power to buy things and accumulate ‘stuff’. Poor people themselves become less valuable, and all kinds of ways are concocted to explain how they are responsible for being poor and the architects of their own fate.
For many of us in the West, myself included, food is something we consume too much and waste too often, while many others suffer with too little. “Part of having more than enough is being thankful for the abundance and properly stewarding what is left over.”
The Israelites cried out to God and received manna and quail. God provided for their physical needs but also showed them his power and compassion. Then they were also tested by God to see if they would follow instructions. How would they handle the abundance that God sent down to them? If they collected too much manna the excess just disappeared. I wonder how long it took them to gather only their daily portion. I would have gathered enough for another day just in case it did not come the next day. God would not have been pleased. How much do we have to accumulate for ourselves?
In the gospel, Jesus told the crowd “to work for the food that endures for eternal life”. And that work consists in believing in the One whom God sent. Jesus challenged those who pursued him to raise their focus from their stomachs to their hearts. He wanted them to be hungry of spirit so that they would be open to the truth of his teaching.
Do you believe in the One God sent. Take time in prayer today with Jesus. Do not just pray alone but pray with someone else too. This could be your spouse, your children, your family, a friend, a neighbor etc. but do pray. We all have a hunger inside of us for something more—that something more is God.