In the Gospel, large crowd kept following Jesus, because they saw what he was doing for the sick. Apparently, they were very excited because Jesus could cure the sick and they were anxious to see what else he could do for them. They still did not understand who he was.
Could that be us? Do we really understand what Jesus promises us and what he will give us if we follow him? Are we naively hoping to find a better job or a better husband or wife? Have we bought into the heresy that prosperity in this world is a sign that we are following the Lord?
In the Gospel Jesus sees people who are in need. They are hungry. Jesus feeds them through a miraculous act – multiplying the loaves and fishes. The people see no further than the bread and the fish, and decided that Jesus would be a great king because he can satisfy their basic needs. When Jesus realized their intentions, he runs away.
So what was the point of all of that? What was Jesus trying to do when he fed all of those people? He was giving them a sign. He was trying to point to a greater reality than the food they could hold in their hands and taste with their mouths. He wanted them to realize that God, the Giver of all life and all good gifts, was present among them.
But the people were too stuck with their own way of seeing things. They were not able to go beyond the physical reality right in front of them. They couldn’t see the reality behind the bread and fish. They were stuck in their own limited vision of life. The result of all this was that Jesus ran away.
We are in the same position as these people were. We are hungry for many things. We are always looking to satisfy our many different hungers in whatever way we can. But the problem is that often we do not seek deep enough; we don’t go far enough; we don’t pay attention to our deepest desires, the desires that are below the surface. We are so taken up with the desire that on the surface that we miss the most important of all our hungers.
The result is that we end up hungrier than we were before.. We want more and more, not realizing that God has given us all that we really need. The trouble is: we think we really need something else. We are in danger of just living on the surface of life where possessions, pleasure, comfort, security, status, and so many other things take up our whole horizon. And so we are prevented from seeing more deeply into life.
Our real hunger for God, for authentic community, for genuine caring gets drowned in a sea of superficial desires and unfulfilled needs. We have become addicted to being busy, to television, to shopping, money and entertainment. As a society, we are chronically distracted. Jesus is calling us away from all that leads nowhere. He invites us each week to come to the Eucharist table where he gives himself to us as the living bread. And he hopes that one day we will see through the surface into the deepest reality there is in life.
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