Homily

This Sunday liturgy continues the reading of chapter six of the Gospel of John. We are in the synagogue of Capernaum where Jesus is pronouncing his well-known speech after the multiplication of the bread. People tried to make him king, but Jesus fled first on the mountain and then in Capernaum. As people could not see him among them anymore, they started to look for him; they got into the boats and went towards the other side of the lake. Their hunger had been satisfied and they did not want to lose contact with this prophet. And in fact they found him again "on the other side." As soon as they saw him, somehow resentfully they told him: "Rabbi, when did you come here?" Jesus knew that they were looking for him only out of self-interest, but he was not scandalized by their request; he came to save them, not to receive their consensus, even less their adulation. He did not follow the crowds; he did not run after their desires, their fashions, and their requests. He was for all, the teacher who guides, teaches, and if necessary, rebukes. This is why he did not stop speaking, exhorting, and correcting them.
Jesus then turned to the crowds with clarity and answered their question: "Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves." Indeed, they were seeking Jesus because they had been filled with the bread he had miraculously multiplied. The problem of the crowd was in fact their feeling full; they had found one who was able to fill them. They did not want to lose him even if they had to cross the sea. They ran to him, but only because he could satisfy their hunger. They cared about his power and not about his heart. They were lacking affection and love for this teacher. Therefore their blindness had to be removed and healed. This was what Jesus was about to do. He told them: "Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life."
It was an exhortation to overcome the narrow and pressing horizon of satiation; Jesus wanted them to go beyond the immediate satisfaction of their needs. There is an order of life that is higher; a dimension of existence that goes beyond worries about eating, clothing, achieving a career, and being serene at any price. All these things do not satisfy our hunger; rather they leave in us an anxiety, a push to look for new needs and new satisfactions, in an endless race. There is a food that does not perish, says Jesus. We should do all we can in order to have it. Jesus seems to say to his listeners, "If you got in to the boats and you came on the other side of the sea to find the bread of the body, how much more you should work to find the food that does not perish!" They do not understand these words well and think that Jesus is asking them to observe other precepts in order to obtain the continuation of that miracle, "What must we do to perform the works of God?" Truly Jesus demands only one thing from them: to believe in him. In another part of the Gospel Jesus affirms, "This is the work of God, that you believe in whom he has sent." It is not about another precept or an additional prescription, rather it is about a personal and affectionate involvement with Jesus and his Gospel. All this is not spontaneous and natural. For some aspects faith is a true "work." It is without doubt a gift from God, but at the same time it is entrusted into our hands, and as every work, it requires decision, application, continuity, toil, choices and total abandonment. People seem to perceive something and they ask, "What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you?" The miracle of the previous day was not enough; it was obvious. That miracle satisfied the needs of the body, but when the issue is about involving their entire life they require other guarantees. However, at the level of love, there are no guarantees as we have in commercial contracts.
Love, and faith with it, is always a risk, though the "signs" performed by Jesus are numerous and incredible. People were and are, so taken by their material satiety or in any event so self-centred that they are not able to see beyond themselves, and then they do not leave the shores of their tranquil certainties to trust the love of the Lord that always leads to the open sea. Anyhow, the Lord does not fail to give us bread to strengthen us on our path of faith and love. Jesus explains to his listeners that the true bread is that which comes from heaven. Even more, it is "that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." The crowd understood only part of this and they said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." It is a spontaneous request, and, at first sight, it is also a beautiful one; I wish it were the request of each of us. And yet, it should rise from the heart, rather than from the stomach.
And Jesus, as it happens in the decisive moments, says clearly, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry." Now we understand the full meaning of the manna in the desert and that of the bread multiplied for five thousand people. There is bread - which is Jesus himself - that is available to everyone; it comes from God and yet it is not far from us. We all can freely receive it. For us, men and women of the rich western world, there is no room to ‘murmur’ against Moses as the Jews did in the desert; we are not even in the condition of those five thousand people who remained without bread because they were caught up listening to Jesus. Maybe we should ‘murmur’ against ourselves, against our delays and slowness because though we have our stomach full and "the bread of life" available, we are not able to receive and taste it. Let us go close to the bread of life" and as the apostle Paul says, we will be "renewed in the spirit of your minds, and will clothe ourselves with the new self."