“How are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?"

Before the multitude which has followed him from the shores of the Sea of Galilee to the mountains in order to listen to his word, Jesus begins, with this question, the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves. This is the significant prelude to the long speech in which he reveals himself to the world as the real Bread of life which came down from heaven (cf. Jn 6:41).

1. We have listened to the evangelical narration: with five barley loaves and two fish, offered by a boy, Jesus feeds about five thousand people. But the latter, not understanding the depth of the "sign" in which they have been involved, are convinced that they have at last found the King-Messiah, who will solve the political and economic problems of their nation. Before this obtuse misunderstanding of his mission, Jesus withdraws, all alone, to the mountains.

We, too, beloved Brothers and Sisters, have followed Jesus and continue to follow him. But we can and must ask ourselves "With what interior attitude?" With the true one of faith, which Jesus expected of the Apostles and of the multitude that he had fed, or with an attitude of incomprehension? Jesus presented himself on that occasion like, in fact more than, Moses who had fed the people of Israel in the desert during the Exodus. He presented himself like, in fact more than, Elisha, who had fed a hundred persons with twenty loaves of barley and grain. Jesus manifested himself, and manifests himself to us today, as the One who is capable of satisfying for ever the hunger of our hearts: "I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst." (Jn 6:33)

And man, especially modern man, is so hungry: hungry for truth, justice, love, peace, beauty; but, above all, hungry for God. "We must hunger for God!", St Augustine exclaims ("famelici Dei esse debemus": Enarrat. in psal. 146, n. 17,: PL 37, 1895 f.). It is he, the heavenly Father, who gives us the true bread!

2. This bread, which we need, is first and foremost Christ, who gives himself to us in the sacramental signs of the Eucharist, and makes us hear, at every Mass, the words of the last Supper: "Take and eat, all of you: this is my body offered in sacrifice for you." In the sacrament of the eucharistic bread—the Second Vatican Council affirms —"the unity of all believers who form one body in Christ (cf. I Cor 10:17) is both expressed and brought about. All men are called to this union with Christ, who is the light of the world, from whom we go forth, through whom we live, and toward whom our journey leads us." (Lumen Gentium, 3.)

The bread that we need is, moreover, the Word of God, because "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Mt 4:4; cf. Dt 8:3). Certainly, men, too, can express and utter words of high value. But history shows us how the words of men are sometimes insufficient, ambiguous, disappointing, biased; while the Word of God is full of truth (cf. 2 Sam 7:28; 1 Cor 17:26); it is upright (Psalms 33:4); it is stable and remains for ever (cf. Psalms 119:89; 1 Pet 1:25).

We must listen religiously to this Word continually; assume it as the criterion of our way of thinking and acting; get to know it, by means of assiduous reading and personal meditation; but especially, we must day after day, in all our behaviour, make it ours, put it into practice,

The bread we need, finally, is grace; and we must invoke it, ask for it with sincere humility and tireless constancy, well aware that it is the most precious thing we can possess.

3. The path of our life, laid out for us by God's providential love, is a mysterious one, sometimes incomprehensible on the human plane, and nearly always hard and difficult. But the Father gives us the bread from heaven" (cf. In 6:32), to encourage us in our pilgrimage on earth.

I am happy to conclude with a passage from St Augustine, which sums up admirably that upon which we have meditated: "We can understand very well... how your Eucharist is daily food. The faithful know, in fact, what they receive and it is good that they should receive the daily bread necessary for this time. They pray for themselves, to become good, to be persevering in goodness, faith, and a good life... the Word of God, which is explained to us and, in a certain sense, broken, every day, is also daily bread" (Sermo 58, IV: PL 38, 395).

May Christ Jesus always multiply his bread, also for us!

Amen!

[Pope John Paul II, homily 29 July 1979]

The Gospel [...] presents to us the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves (see Mt 14,13-21). The scene takes place in a deserted place, where Jesus had retired with His disciples. But the people found Him so as to listen to Him and to be healed: indeed, His words and His gestures restore and bring hope. At sundown, the crowd was still present and the disciples, practical men, invited Jesus to send them away so that they could go and find something to eat. But He answered: “You give them something to eat” (v. 16). We can imagine the disciples’ faces! Jesus was well aware of what He was about to do, but He wanted to change their attitude: not to say, “send them away,” “let them fend for themselves”, “let them find something to eat”, but rather, “what does Providence offer us to share?” These are two opposite ways of behaving. And Jesus wants to bring them to the second way of behaving because the first proposal is that of the practical person, but is not generous: “send them away so they can go and find, let them fend for themselves.” Jesus thinks another way. Jesus wants to use this situation to educate His friends, both then and now, about God’s logic. And what is God’s logic that we see here? The logic of taking responsibility for others. The logic of not washing one’s hands, the logic of not looking the other way. No. The logic of taking responsibility for others. That “let them fend for themselves” should not enter into the Christian vocabulary.

As soon as one of the Twelve says, realistically, “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish”, Jesus answers, “Bring them here to me” (vv. 17-18). He takes the food in His hands, raises His eyes heavenward, recites the blessing and begins to break it and  give the pieces to the disciples to hand out. And those loaves and fish did not run out; there was enough, and plenty left over for thousands of people.

With this gesture, Jesus demonstrates His power; not in a spectacular way but as a sign of charity, of God the Father’s generosity toward His weary and needy children. He is immersed in the life of His people, He understands their fatigue and their limitations, but He does not allow anyone to be lost, or to lose out: He nourishes them with His word and provides food in plenty for sustenance.

In this Gospel passage we can perceive a reference to the Eucharist, especially in the description of the blessing, the breaking of the bread, delivery to the disciples, and distribution to the people (v. 19). It is noteworthy how close the link is between the Eucharistic bread, nourishment for eternal life, and daily bread, necessary for earthly life. Before offering Himself to the Father as the Bread of salvation, Jesus ensures there is food for those who follow Him and who, in order to be with Him, forgot to make provisions. At times the spiritual and the material are in opposition, but in reality spiritualism, like materialism, is alien to the Bible. It is not biblical language.

The compassion and tenderness that Jesus showed towards the crowds is not sentimentality, but rather the concrete manifestation of the love that cares for the people’s needs. And we are called to approach the Eucharistic table with these same attitudes of Jesus: compassion for the needs of others, this word that is repeated in the Gospel when Jesus sees a problem, an illness or these people without food… “He had compassion.” “He had compassion”. Compassion is not a purely material feeling; true compassion is patire con [to suffer with], to take others’ sorrows on ourselves. Perhaps it would do us good today to ask ourselves: Do I feel compassion when I read news about war, about hunger, about the pandemic? So many things… Do I feel compassion toward those people? Do I feel compassion toward the people who are near to me? Am I capable of suffering with them, or do I look the other way, or “they can fend for themselves”? Let us not forget this word “compassion,” which is trust in the provident love of the Father, and means courageous sharing.

May Mary Most Holy help us to walk the path that the Lord shows us in today's Gospel. It is the journey of fraternity, which is essential in order to face the poverty and suffering of this world, especially in this tragic moment, and which projects us beyond the world itself, because it is a journey that begins with God and returns to God.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 2 August 2020]

(Jn 6:24-35)

Mysticism of the Seed and Work-Gift of Faith

(Jn 6:22-29)

Not a few seek Jesus not for the amazement of the Person and his Way, but because He guarantees more satiety than others (v.26).

Then we must get out of the superficiality of short thoughts. To the Master, the "correct" relationship already seems a "finished" Love.

Christ's proposal points to other goals; it’s not matched by momentary enthusiasm for a sensational event, nor by quiet selfishness.

In the Sign that nourishes the new Way [the Exodus of «little boats» (vv.22-24) that follow Christ] lies a Vocation and a Mission.

Beyond where one assumes.

A Mysticism of the donated Seed opens up the meaning of personal existence - to finally set us off  without guardians (v.22).

The «Son of man» is the person endowed with full humanity, depicting man in the divine condition.

He is always surprisingly on the other side (v.25) to make himself that "I don't know what": ‘Perfume’ of the outgoing Church.

Eros-beyond, which overcomes attachments, habits, consolidated equilibriums.

The Lord doesn’t identify spiritual well-being with the extinguishing of the soul’s flame, in the manias even of activism.

Therefore, the required Work is not at all about fulfilling the many prescriptions.

It does not resemble the usual staging, set-up and composition works [the «doing»: v.28], for it is rather singular Action of God [Subject] in us.

Observances must be tediously piled on top of each other.

The divine Initiative that is accomplished in our every gesture is instead a precious Virtue, an unexpected Energy.

A new opportunity to meet ourselves, our brothers, another shore - and to detach ourselves from exteriority.

Jesus reveals himself in the sign of the breaking of Bread.

«Food that endures for the Life of the Eternal» (v. 27), that is, that flows into an experience that already here and now possesses the indestructible quality of God's own intimacy.

In order to receive the well-chopped Food that sustains and becomes a source of complete life in us, the "work" to be done doesn’t belong to the kind that we can ‘prepare’ - not even according to law and devotions.

It can only be a response to the work that the Father himself carries out within each of us; even if it does not immediately appear brilliant and finalized.

And here is the reversal guaranteed by the adventure of Faith:

Religious submission is swept away by Acceptance, which has a far less mortifying (and reductionist) sense; conversely, respectful of attempts. And creative.

The relationship with God changes.

It becomes one of pure welcoming; yet inventive, by Name: unrepeatable and personal.

No more of passive renunciation, reproach, purification, obedience [“yes-sir” appearances].

The founding Eros does not scold us: it is solely Gift. For a healthy Reciprocity, respectful of our character and ascendant.

In this way, the Attraction will not be extinguished. It wants its peaks every day; it is not enough for it to become normal symbiosis, then habit.

Rather, it dreams of a broad Path.

The rest unfortunately remains ineffective or ambiguous sequels; leading the soul always at war with itself and others.

Binary that here and there can only manifest blind, one-sided, forced caricatures of the Eternal’s Image - despite the claims of excellence.

Mechanisms that hurt.

Mysticism of the Bread of Life

(Jn 6:30-35)

What the term «Bread» used by Jesus in this pericope alludes to is derived from the Hebrew term «Lechem», whose root [consonants «l-h-m»] evokes his «being ground» and «sifted» in the Passion of love; thus, it relates in filigree to the complete gift on the Cross.

According to a Jewish belief, the coming of the Messiah would be accompanied by a shower of Manna from heaven - called Manna of the Second Redeemer - to satisfy material appetites.

Bread that does not last.

There were also rabbinic speculations that reflected other claims, not of physical necessity; and they told of the «bread» descended from above in a sapiential figure (Deut 8:3: «man does not live by bread alone, but by what comes from the mouth of the Lord»; cf. Wis 16:26).

In order to satisfy existential needs and great questions of meaning, Jesus reveals and presents Himself as the indestructible Bread of Life.

There are questions we cannot answer: why the pain and humiliation, why there are fortunate people and others who through no fault of their own live unhappily; for what great task we were born and why despite the comforts we still do not feel fulfilled.

Our experience is as if shrouded in the confusion of underlying questions... and often lacking even the eye and warmth of a Witness.

So we look for a Person who translates everything into Relation, and we long for his sapiential Food - a foundation, the humanising warmth, and a synthesis of all truth, of all history.

Only Jesus and his story give meaning to the many happenings; also to limits, wounds, boundaries, precariousness.

He is Dream, Meaning, Action and Voice of the Father. Key, Centre and Destination of each one and of humanity. The only Food for the 'hunger' and the only Source for the 'thirst' of the woman and man subjected to trials and questions.

In Jesus' time, by widespread devotion Moses continued to be the great leader to believe and adhere to. But according to the Lord, that of the Exodus of the "fathers" is configured as a proposal that has no future: it does not guarantee orientation, subsistence and a joyful, solid and full life.

It does not even remain as a stump of the now. It is only an archaic seed, a particular excrescence undone in favour of the mystical and renewed Wheat that makes one proceed on the authentic Path.

The pious and inactual custom - with all its labours - had not secured the great change: access to the 'land of the free'.

The Gift from Heaven prepared and arranged another Birth, upsetting from the root the light, tedious and insipid nourishment; whatever, for all seasons.

No reassuring recipe comes our way, because the 'second Genesis' and growth in the Spirit has character, but it does not happen once and for all.

Even the wounds and uncertainties of life become a 'call' to feed on the Person of Christ. But reinterpreting Him with new answers to new questions; to generate again and grow in Him and of Him.

So we are in the episodes, yet out of time; in the Love that is born, yet new.

We can experience the taste of living, instead of the condemnation of always feeling undermined.

For this spousal and ever-new union, the immense scope of his Person minced, ruminated, made one's own as one does with food, becomes Life itself of the Eternal (v.33).

Anointing that does not lapse, that calls us together to Concelebrate.

(Jn 6:24-35)

Mysticism of the Seed and the Work-Gift of Faith

(Jn 6:22-29)

The crowd must be directed, because faced with the "sign of the loaves" the reaction seems disappointing. Sensationalism that directs towards an earthly kingdom is not worthwhile (v.15).

Not a few seek Jesus not for the amazement of the Person and his Way, but because it guarantees more satiety than others (v.26).

Then one must get out of the superficiality of short thoughts. To the Master, the "correct" relationship already seems a "finished" Love.

Christ's proposal points to other goals; it does not match with momentary enthusiasm for a sensational fact, nor with quiet egoism.

In the Sign that nourishes the new Way [the Exodus of "little boats" (vv.22-24) that follow Christ] lies a Vocation and a Mission. Beyond where it is assumed.

A Mysticism of the Seed given to finally set us off without guardians (v.22) opens up the meaning of personal existence.

Otherwise the struggle for 'bread' does not reach the Source, nor the roots of being and relationship. Nor does it expand the horizon of total living.

In the desert, Moses had ensured sustenance for the people: admittedly, a meagre food, always identical to the point of boredom - but reassuring. 

Like ancient religion: good for all seasons; which is also good on the surface.

The 'Son of Man' is the person endowed with full humanity, portraying man in the divine condition.

He does not repeat the past: he is always surprisingly on the other side (v.25) to make himself that "I know not what": 'perfume' of the outgoing Church.

Eros beyond, which overcomes attachments, habit, established balances.

In short, Christ does not want passive friends, those who do not want the discomfort of listening and dialogue; who shun suffering, affronts, or the consequences of new initiatives.

The Lord does not identify spiritual well-being with the extinguishing (toxic) of the flame of the soul that does not measure itself, that does not like questioning, and comparisons.

In our journey, the very apprehension of situations that worry and manifest vulnerabilities are valuable intimate signals.

The same goes for failures, which force us to rework 'no events', look inside ourselves, shift our gaze.

Assemblies of Faith' are the Fraternities that in the unfolding of relationships, horizons and even insecurities do not leave us conditioned and 'regulated', shaped by epidermal, other people's gazes.

Equal conviviality of people who do not keep food and treasures for themselves, experiencing together a special aptitude for appreciation and wholeness - without secret, hysterical, lacerating dissociations.

The Work required is not at all about fulfilling legal requirements, the pile of 'works', or fulfilling the many requirements... to 'deserve'.

It does not resemble the usual works of setting up [the "doing": v.28], for it is rather singular Action of God [Subject] in us.

Observances must be tediously piled on top of one another. Instead, the divine Work that is accomplished in our every act is precious Virtue.

Unexpected energy; a new opportunity to meet ourselves, our brothers, another shore - and to detach ourselves from externality.

Jesus self-veils himself in the sign of the breaking of the Bread, "food that lasts for the Life of the Eternal" (v.27), that is to say, an experience that already here and now possesses the indestructible quality of God's own intimacy.

In order to receive the well-diminished Food that sustains and becomes in us the source of complete life, the "work" to be done does not belong to the kind we can do - not even according to law and devotion.

It can only be a response to the work that the Father Himself does within each of us, even if it does not immediately appear brilliant and purposeful.

And here is the reversal guaranteed by the adventure of Faith:

Religious submission is undermined by acceptance, which has a far less mortifying (or reductionist) sense; conversely, respectful of attempts, and creative.

It does not only present a kind of elitist and normalised depersonalisation: e.g. 'eyes open', pleasures not to be experienced, 'bills to be paid'; so on.

It changes the relationship with God.

It becomes one of pure 'reception'. And yet inventive, by Name: unrepeatable and personal.

No longer one of passive renunciation, rebuke, purification, obedience [lordly appearances].

The founding Eros does not scold us: he is solely Gift.

But only its work is reliable, albeit whimsical, unaligned, changeable, totally unpredictable.

And Us? Spontaneous, transparent, unbothered correspondence; not covered by tame activism.

Only then will 'giving in' not somatise into acts of protest. For a healthy Reciprocity, respectful of our character and ascendant.

In this way the attraction will not be extinguished. It wants its peaks every day; it is not enough for it to turn into a normal symbiosis, then a fad.

Rather, it dreams of a broad Path; in depth. Of regeneration and similarity - which involves and projects, but does not absorb.

The rest unfortunately remains an ineffective or ambiguous sequel; leading the soul always at war with itself and others.

Binary that here and there can only manifest blind, one-sided, forced caricatures of His Image - despite the claims of excellence.

Mechanisms that hurt.

To internalise and live the message:

How do you discern the qualitative difference between Works of Law and Works of Faith?

Mysticism of the Bread of Life

(Jn 6:30-35)

What the term "Bread" used by Jesus in this pericope alludes to is derived from the Hebrew term "Lechem", whose root [consonants "l-h-m"] evokes its "being ground" and "sifted" in the Passion of love; hence, it relates in filigree to the complete gift on the Cross.

According to a Jewish belief, the coming of the Messiah would be accompanied by a shower of Manna from heaven - called Manna of the Second Redeemer - to satisfy material appetites.

Bread that does not last.

There were also rabbinic speculations reflecting other claims, not of physical necessity; and they told of the 'bread' descended from above in a sapiential figure (Deut 8:3: "man does not live by bread alone, but by what comes from the mouth of the Lord"; cf. Wis 16:26).

To meet existential needs and the great burning questions of meaning, Jesus reveals and presents Himself as the indestructible Bread of Life.

In the messianic hopes of a golden age and liberation lurked the same expectations that lurk in the folds of our going, even further than those fulfilled by Moses.

We seek eminent food.

For there are questions that we cannot answer: why the pain and humiliation, why there are fortunate people and others who through no fault of their own live unhappily; for what great task we were born, and why despite our comforts we still do not feel fulfilled.

Our experience is as if shrouded in the confusion of underlying questions... and often even the eye and warmth of a Witness is missing.

So we look for a Person who translates everything into Relation, and we long for his Wisdom Food - a foundation, a humanising warmth, and a synthesis of all truth and all history.

Only Jesus and his story give meaning to the many happenings; even to limits, wounds, boundaries, precariousness: he is Dream, Meaning, Action and Voice of the Father. Key, Centre and Destination of each one and of humanity.

The only Nourishment for the 'hunger' and the only true Source for the 'thirst' of the woman and man subjected to trials and questions.

In Jesus' time, by widespread devotion Moses continued to be the great leader to believe and adhere to.

But according to the Lord, that of the Exodus of the 'fathers' is configured as a proposal that has no future: it does not guarantee orientation, subsistence and a joyful, solid and full life.

It does not even remain as a stump of the now. It is only an archaic seed, a particular excrescence undone in favour of the mystical and renewed Wheat that makes us proceed on the authentic Path.

The great ancient leader had stopped at the religious dimension and his requisitions. What was missing was the leap of Faith ignited by the revelation of the Father's heart, in the teaching, in the story, and in the Person of Christ.

Accepting Jesus as the authentic motive and driving force, support and nourishment that would truly take hunger out of the way, is inseparable from accepting his proposal:

"Will you unite your life to Mine?". One Body, between us and Him - burning.

In such an approach, not even heaven had been able to satiate the doubts - a paradoxically growing hunger and a parchedness that forced one to return to draw, instead of succeeding in quenching the people's thirst.

The approach of simple religiosity plagued the lives of women and men, increasingly so.

Nervous, skittish and dissatisfied people. A wedding feast devoid of festivity, due to a cold, distant, impersonal, Spirit-resistant doctrine and discipline.

The pious and outdated, old-fashioned custom - with all its labours - had not ensured, and neither does it guarantee today, the great change that sustains us on our journey and ceaselessly urges us on, kindling the heart of Friendship: access to the 'land of the free', hence of love.

The Gift from Heaven prepared and arranged another Birth, disrupting from the root the common religious relationship - light, tedious and insipid nourishment; whatever, and never thickening: 'good' for all seasons.

All this was coupled with a prospect of Happiness postponed to the afterlife, after death, and on the basis of external merits.

A swampy climate of compressed and stagnant energies, which did not make one vibrate with joy.

With Jesus, simple believing becomes Faith - no longer assent and demeaning repetition, which hurls and drags us beyond our 'centre' - but unique, unprecedented and creative action. First of all of God Himself in us; for a complete realisation: as children.No reassuring recipe emerges, because the 'second' Genesis and growth in the Spirit has character, but it does not happen once and for all.

Uniquely in this sense, the expression "I Am" (v.35) underlines the exclusivity of the "discourse of revelation".

Christ totally reinterprets, and overturns, the idea of transcendence of the divine condition in the human.

The Most High is received and assimilated with a view to germination and likeness, no longer to external imitation and obedience.

"Too much" is only the Wisdom of his Revelation, which frees from doubts because it makes them fruitful and propulsive; not at all humiliating in the same way as the ancient vacillations.

Even the wounds and uncertainties of life become a 'call' to feed on the Person of Christ. But reinterpreting it with new answers to new questions; to generate oneself again and grow in Him and of Him.

So we are in the episodes, yet out of time; in the Love that is born, new.

Our identity - better: 'imprint' - is not that of pretenders [which does not quench the soul's thirst] but that of being loved.

In this way, we no longer need to silence all normal needs.

We can experience the taste of living, instead of the condemnation of always feeling undermined.

Because of this spousal and ever-new union, the immense scope of his Person minced, ruminated and made one's own as one does with food, becomes Life itself of the Eternal (v.33).

An anointing that does not lapse, that calls together to Concelebrate.

To internalise and live the message:

Does my soul hunger for merciful offices on the body or for rebirth, for meaning, and for a pathway to freedom?

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Reading of the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel continues in the Liturgy of the Word of this Sunday. We are in the synagogue of Capharnaum where Jesus was giving his well-known discourse after the multiplication of the loaves. The people had sought to make him king but Jesus had withdrawn, first, to the mountain with God, with the Father, and then to Capharnaum. Since they could not see him, they began to look for him, they boarded the boats in order to cross the lake to the other shore and had found him at last. However, Jesus was well aware of the reason for this great enthusiasm in following him and he says so, even clearly: “you seek me, not because you saw signs, [because you were deeply impressed] but because you ate your fill of the loaves” (v. 26).

Jesus wants to help the people go beyond the immediate satisfaction — albeit important — of their own material needs. He wants to open them to a horizon of existence that does not consist merely of the daily concerns of eating, of being clothed, of a career. Jesus speaks of a food that does not perish, which it is important to seek and to receive. He says: “do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you” (v. 27).

The crowd does not understand, it believes that Jesus is asking for the observance of precepts in order to obtain the continuation of that miracle, and asks: “what must we do, to be dong the works of God?” (v. 28). Jesus’ answer is unequivocal: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (v. 29). The centre of existence — which is what gives meaning and certain hope in the all too often difficult journey of life — is faith in Jesus, it is the encounter with Christ.

We too ask: “what must we do to have eternal life?”. And Jesus says: “believe in me”. Faith is the fundamental thing. It is not a matter here of following an idea or a project, but of encountering Jesus as a living Person, of letting ourselves be totally involved by him and by his Gospel. Jesus invites us not to stop at the purely human horizon and to open ourselves to the horizon of God, to the horizon of faith. He demands a single act: to accept God’s plan, namely, to “believe in him whom he has sent” (v. 29).

Moses had given Israel manna, the bread from heaven with which God himself had nourished his people. Jesus does not give some thing, he gives himself: he is the “true bread that which comes down from heaven”. He is the living Word of the Father; in the encounter with him we meet the living God.

“What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” (v. 28), the crowd asks, ready to act in order to perpetuate the miracle of the loaves. But Jesus, the true bread of life that satisfies our hunger for meaning and for truth, cannot be “earned” with human work; he comes to us only as a gift of God’s love, as a work of God to be asked for and received.

Dear friends, on days that are busy and full of problems, but also on days of rest and relaxation, the Lord asks us not to forget that if it is necessary to be concerned about material bread and to replenish our strength, it is even more fundamental to develop our relationship with him, to reinforce our faith in the One who is the “bread of life” which satisfies our desire for truth and love.

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 5 August 2012]

1. "I am the bread of life" (Jn 6:35).

As a pilgrim to the 46th International Eucharistic Congress, I turn my steps first to the ancient Cathedral of Wrocław in order to kneel with faith before the Blessed Sacrament — the "Bread of Life". I do so with deep emotion and heartfelt gratitude to Divine Providence for the gift of this Congress and the fact that it is taking place here, in Wrocław, in Poland — in my homeland.

After the miraculous multiplication of the loaves, Christ says to the crowds who were seeking him: "Truly, truly I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you" (Jn 6:26-27). How difficult it was for Jesus' hearers to make this passage from the sign to the mystery indicated by that sign, from daily bread to the bread "which endures to eternal life"! Nor is it easy for us, the people of the twentieth century. Eucharistic Congresses are celebrated precisely for this reason, to remind the whole world of this truth: "Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life".

Jesus' hearers, continuing the dialogue, rightly ask, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" (Jn 6:28). And Christ answers: "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent" (Jn 6:29). It is an exhortation to have faith in the Son of man, in the Giver of the food which does not perish. Without faith in him whom the Father has sent, it is not possible to recognize and accept this Gift which does not pass away. This is the very reason why we are here — here in Wrocław, at the 46th International Eucharistic Congress. We are here in order to profess, together with the whole Church, our faith in Christ the Eucharist, in Christ — the living bread and the bread of life. With Saint Peter we say: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Mt 16:16) and again: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (Jn 6:68).

2. "Lord, give us this bread always" (Jn 6:34).

The miraculous multiplication of the loaves had not evoked the expected response of faith in those who had been eyewitnesses of that event. They wanted a new sign: "Then what sign do you do, that we may see, and believe? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat'" (Jn 6:30-31). The disciples gathered around Jesus thus expect a sign like the manna which their ancestors had eaten in the desert. But Jesus exhorts them to expect something more than a mere repetition of the miracle of the manna, to expect a different kind of food. Christ says: "It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world" (Jn 6:32-33).

Along with physical hunger man has within him another hunger, a more basic hunger, which cannot be satisfied by ordinary food. It is a hunger for life, a hunger for eternity. The sign of the manna was the proclamation of the coming of Christ who was to satisfy man's hunger for eternity by himself becoming the "living bread" which "gives life to the world". And see: those who heard Jesus ask him to fulfil what had been proclaimed by the sign of the manna, perhaps without being conscious of how far their request would go: "Lord, give us this bread always" (Jn 6:34). How eloquent is this request! How generous and how amazing is its fulfilment. "I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst... For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him" (Jn 6:35,55-56). "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day' (Jn 6:54).

What a great dignity has been bestowed on us! The Son of God gives himself to us in the Most Holy Sacrament of his Body and Blood. How infinitely great is God's generosity! He responds to our deepest desires, which are not only desires for earthly bread, but extend to the horizons of life eternal. This is the great mystery of faith!

3. "Rabbi, when did you come here?" (Jn 6:54).

This was the question put to Jesus by those who sought him after the miraculous multiplication of the loaves. We too ask this same question today, in Wroclaw. It is the question asked by everyone taking part in the International Eucharistic Congress. And Christ answers us: I came when your ancestors received Baptism, at the time of Mieszko I and of Boleslas the Brave, when Bishops and priests began to celebrate in this land the "mystery of faith" which brought together all those who hungered for the bread which gives eternal life.

This was how Christ came to Wrocław over a thousand years ago, when the Church was born here and Wrocław became an episcopal see, one of the first in the territories of the Piast. In the course of the centuries Christ came to all the places on the earth from which those taking part in this Eucharistic Congress have come. And from that time on he has continued to be present in the Eucharist, always equally silent, humble and generous. Truly, "having loved those who were his own in the world, he loved them to the end" (Jn 13:1).

Now, on the threshold of the Third Millennium, we wish to give a particular expression to our gratitude. This Eucharistic Congress in Wroclaw has an international dimension. Taking part in it are not only the faithful of Poland, but faithful from throughout the world. Together we all want to express our deep faith in the Eucharist and our fervent gratitude for the Eucharistic food which for almost two thousand years has nourished whole generations of believers in Christ. How inexhaustible and available to all is the treasury of God's love! How enormous is our debt to Christ the Eucharist! We realize this and we cry out with Saint Thomas Aquinas: "Quantum potes, tantum aude: quia maior omni laude, nec laudare sufficis", "Dare all thou canst, thou hast no song, worthy his praises to prolong, so far surpassing powers like thine" (Lauda Sion).

These words express very well the attitude of all taking part in this Eucharistic Congress. In these days we seek to give the Lord Jesus in the Eucharist the honour and glory which he deserves. Let us strive to thank him for his presence, because for nearly two thousand years he has remained in our midst.

"We give you thanks, our Father...
You have graciously given us
spiritual food and drink
and life eternal
through Jesus your servant.
To you be glory for ever!" (cf. Didache).

[Pope John Paul II, Eucharistic Congress, homily in Wroclaw Cathedral, 31 May 1997]

Over the last few Sundays the liturgy has presented us with the image filled with Jesus’ tenderness reaching out to the crowd and its needs. In today’s Gospel passage (cf. Jn 6:24-35) the perspective changes. The crowd whose hunger Jesus has satisfied begins to seek him anew and goes to encounter him. But for Jesus, it is not enough that people seek him. He wants people to know him. He wishes that the search for him and the encounter with him go beyond the immediate satisfaction of material needs. Jesus came to bring us something more, to open our lives to a wider horizon than the daily concerns of eating, clothing ourselves, career and so on. Thus, turning to the crowd, he exclaims: “you seek me, not because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves (v. 26)”. In this way, he encourages the people to go a step further and to question themselves on the significance of the miracle, and not simply to take advantage of it. Indeed, the multiplication of the loaves and the fish is a sign of the great gift the Father has given to humanity, which is Jesus himself!

He, the true “bread of life” (v. 35), wants to satisfy not just the bodies but also the souls, giving the spiritual food that can satisfy profound hunger. This is why he invites the crowd to obtain not the food which perishes, but that which endures for eternal life (cf. v. 27). It is the food that Jesus gives to us every day: his Word, his Body, his Blood. The crowd listens to the Lord’s invitation, but does not understand its meaning — as often happens to us — and asks him: “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” (v. 28). Those who are listening to Jesus think that he is asking them to observe the precepts in order to obtain more miracles like the multiplication of the loaves. This is a common temptation; to reduce religion to only the practice of its laws, projecting onto our relationship with God the image of the relationship between servants and their master: servants must carry out the tasks that the master assigns to them in order to enjoy his benevolence. We all know this. Therefore, the crowd wants to know from Jesus which actions it must perform in order to please God. But Jesus’ reply is unexpected: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (v. 29). Today, these words are also addressed to us: God’s work does not consist so much in “doing” things, but in “believing” in Him whom He sent. This means that faith in Jesus allows us to carry out God’s works. If we allow ourselves to be involved in this loving and trusting relationship with Jesus, we will be able to perform good works that exude the fragrance of the Gospel for the good and needs of our brothers and sisters.

The Lord invites us not to forget that, if it is necessary to worry about bread, it is even more important to nurture our relationship with Him, to strengthen our faith in Him, who is the “bread of life” who came to satisfy our hunger for truth, our hunger for justice and our hunger for love. On the day in which we remember the dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome, may the Virgin Mary, the Salus Populi Romani, support us in our journey of faith and help us to joyfully surrender ourselves to God’s design for our lives.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 5 August 2018]

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time B (4 August 2024)

1. The manna "is the bread that the Lord has given you": this is how Moses explains to the people the meaning of the manna, which has various symbols in the Bible. The choice of the account of the manna in the first reading, taken from the book of Exodus, is linked to the "Eucharistic" discourse that Jesus gave in the synagogue of Capernaum. As many as 13 times, St John evokes the figure of Moses and the manna is mentioned five times as a symbol of the "bread of life". But what is manna? One morning the wandering Jews in the desert woke up and discovered next to their camps "a fine and grainy thing, minute as the frost on the earth" that had miraculously rained down between heaven and earth; they continued to find it every morning during their exodus in the desert. They gathered it every day except the Sabbath and kneaded it to make flatbreads to be baked with the vague taste of pasta in oil. Harvesting ceased, as we read in the book of Joshua, on entering the promised land (Jas 5:11-12). Manna has various meanings in the Bible: firstly, it is 'the bread' with which God feeds his people and tests them when they complain and murmur against him in the wilderness. It is a twofold test: firstly, Israel must learn the lesson of gratitude to the One who provides everything; and secondly, being hard-hearted people never content with anything, they must learn to remain faithful to the Lord's orders and commandments, who asks them to collect only enough manna for every single day because the surplus rots. In other words, God also educates the people he has chosen as his own.  In other books of the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms, manna becomes the symbol of God's word and divine love that continues to spread over humanity and finally, especially in the Jewish tradition, manna becomes the 'food of the messianic age'.  Ultimately, the manna in the desert also becomes for us Christians the sign of God's faithfulness and of our effort to trust him and believe his promises as we advance towards Heaven, our final homeland.

2. Psalm 77/78, of which we proclaim today only a few brief passages as a responsorial psalm, takes up the theme of God's faithfulness and of man's struggle to trust him.  The Lord "rained manna on them for food and gave them bread from heaven. Man ate the bread of the strong, he gave them food in abundance' (v.v. 23-24).  Even though gratitude for such a mysterious gift emerges here, Psalm 77/78 as a whole tells the true story of Israel, which unfolds between God's faithfulness and the fickleness of the people, even though they are always aware of the importance of preserving the memory of God's works. For faith to continue to be spread, three conditions are needed: the testimony of one who can say that God has intervened in his life; the courage to share this personal experience and pass it on faithfully; finally, it takes the willingness of a community to preserve the faith handed down by the ancestors as an inalienable inheritance. Israel knows that faith is not a baggage of intellectual notions, but the living experience of God's gifts and mercy. Here is the spiritual fabric of this psalm where in no less than seventy-two verses the faith of Israel is sung, founded in the memory of the liberation from slavery and on the memory of the long troubled pilgrimage from Egypt to Sinai marked by unfaithfulness and inconstancy: despite everything, faith is handed down from generation to generation. The strongest risk to faith is idolatry as denounced by all the prophets, a current risk in every age, today easy to recognise in the signs and gestures performed and flaunted as the boast of emancipated freedom. The psalmist denounces this idolatry as the cause of humanity's misfortune. Until man discovers the true face of God, not as he imagines it but as he is in truth, he will find the road to happiness barred because all kinds of idols block our path to responsible freedom. Superstition, fetishism, witchcraft, thirst for money, hunger for power and pleasure, worship of the person and ideologies force us to live in the regime of fear preventing us from knowing the true face of the living God. In verse 8 of the psalm (77/78), which we do not find in the liturgy today, the psalmist indicates unfaithfulness with the image of the valiant archer who fails and fails in his mission: "The sons of Ephraim, valiant archers, turned their backs in the days of battle". If today's 'cancel culture' wants to make us forget that everything is a gift in life, we fall into a sadness full of ingratitude, going so far as to mutter angrily: 'God does not exist, and if he does exist, he does not love me, indeed he has never loved me'. It follows that the dark clouds of ingratitude and anger sadden life and only the liberating experience of faith dispels and disperses them because it makes us rediscover that God exists, loves and forgives: his name is Mercy!

3. In order not to give in to the temptation of idolatry, which is fashionable today, God offers us a twofold nourishment: material food and spiritual food expressed in the "sign" of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes with which Jesus feeds an immense crowd. In the synagogue of Capernaum, Jesus takes this miracle as the starting point for the long discourse on the "bread of life" that is the Eucharist. A discourse that will continue in the coming Sundays, and has a surprising incipit at first sight. To the people who ask him a simple question: "Rabbi, when did you come here?" he does not answer directly, but starts with a solemn formula: "Verily, verily I say unto you", similar to that of the prophets in the Old Testament: "The Lord's prayer".  He draws attention to something important and difficult to understand, which he is about to say, and three times the listeners interrupt him with objections. With educational and provocative skill, using metaphorical and symbolic language, Jesus also leads us, step by step, to the revelation of the central mystery of faith: the mystery of the "Word who became flesh and dwelt among us" by offering his life on the cross for the salvation of mankind. In the entire discourse on the "bread of life" we hear resound the unsurpassed meditation of the prologue of the fourth gospel: Jesus is the Word of the Father who came into the world to give, to those who accept him, the power to become children of God, "to those who believe in his name and have been begotten of God" (cf. Jn 1:12). And to be clear, he immediately says that the people did not grasp the sign of the miracle: "You sought me out not because you saw signs, but because you ate of those loaves and were satisfied".  As if to say, you are happy because of what you have eaten, but you have not grasped the essential: I did not come to satisfy your hunger for material food, but this bread is the sign of something more important. Indeed, it was not I who acted, but the heavenly Father who sent me to give you a different food that preserves you for eternal life.  In fact, the distinction between material food and spiritual food was a theme dear to the Jewish religion, as is well understood in Deuteronomy: God "fed you with manna that you did not know... to make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but by what comes from the mouth of the Lord" (Deut 8:3) and in the book of Wisdom: "You fed your people with angel food, you offered them bread from heaven that was ready-made without effort, capable of providing every delight and satisfying every taste.  This food of yours manifested your sweetness towards your children; it was adapted to the taste of those who swallowed it and became what each one desired...not the different kinds of fruit nourish man, but your word preserves those who believe in you" (Wis.16:20-28). The listeners understand what Jesus is referring to and ask: "What must we do to do the works of God?".  Jesus then presents himself as the expected Messiah: "This is the work of God: that you believe in him whom he has sent. And why believe? Moses performed the miracle of the manna and at that time great was the expectation for the promised manna as the food of the messianic age. The third question is therefore understood: "What work do you do that we may believe?" and Jesus answers: "My Father gives you the bread from heaven, the true bread". Misunderstanding does not stop him in his self-revelation and the Gospel text today closes with the proclamation of the Eucharist: "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst'. The secret then is to have Faith! 

Good Sunday to all + Giovanni D'Ercole

P.S. I add today, memorial of the holy curate of Ars, Jean-Marie Vianney, this thought of his on faith and the Eucharist: "What joy for a Christian who has faith, who, rising from the Holy Table, leaves with all of heaven in his heart! Ah, happy the house in which such Christians dwell!... what respect one must have for them, during the day. To have, in the home, a second tabernacle where the good God has truly dwelt in body and soul!"

Prophecy, Revelation

(Mt 14:1-12)

Those who are cloaked in luster and power become ambitious, bold and willing to any violence for a false point of honor.

The courageous who denounces abuse is cut off, but the voice of his martyrdom will no longer be silent. That’s why the episode doesn’t induce Jesus to greater prudence.

Tyrants mock the isolated, uncomfortable and defenceless, but leaders and powerful are also cowards: they do not intend to alienate popular fame from themselves.

Besides being spineless, here Herod Antipas appears superstitious, even influenced by Hellenistic beliefs about the reappearance of the dead.

In addition, he thought of the men of God as doers of “miracles” - an ambiguous term, which some new translations avoid (cf. v.2).

Jesus never attended the new Herodian capital, Tiberias, the city of court palaces, built in diplomatic homage to the Roman emperor - after Sepphoris, where Jesus also worked.

Generic and confusing religiosity can adapt to every season and be made their own even by those who think that the others’ lives are worth nothing, but a Prophet does not settle on the whim of corrupt systems.

In the Palestinian villages the life of the people was harassed by taxes and abuses of landowners [who did not even reside on the spot] and controlled by the perfect combination of interests between civil and religious power.

The leaders of the popular faith, orthodox, subordinate and “befitting”, were at leash of the authorities on the territory. They considered themselves definitive, and found strength in the coalition.

It seemed absurd that in that society someone dared to break through the omertous wall that guaranteed the troublemakers - the guides, the bullies even of the lowest level - to consider themselves untouchable.

Faced with the blackmail (without too many compliments) of the privileged who had control of every social and cultural class, it seemed impossible to start a new path, or say and do anything not aligned.

The question of "Jesus, Who is he?" grows throughout the Gospels.

The statement of people's opinions (e.g. Mt 14:1-2; Mk 6:14-16; Lk 9:7-9) suggests that even around the first assemblies of believers there was an attempt to understand Christ from what was already known [from the criteria of Scripture and tradition, from ancient - even superstitious - beliefs and suggestions].

But the man of God is not simply a purifier of the Temple, nor a patchworker of conformist religiosity. He overturns popular, emotional or standard hopes.

In this way, each Prophet troubles all the “rank and file” characters, who hold the exclusiveness.

John and Jesus challenge and attract upon themselves the revenge of those who try to perpetuate the prerogatives of the old cosmos, and the wrath of those who are exposed in their hypocrisies.

It’s the real difficulty that the Proclamation of the New Kingdom in the world encounters. 

His contemptuous refusal and each assassination attempt will be a litmus test of our singular and renewed testimony, the revelation of which will run parallel to the Two.

[Saturday 17th wk. in O.T.  August 3, 2024]

We see this great figure, this force in the Passion, in resistance to the powerful. We wonder: what gave birth to this life, to this interiority so strong, so upright, so consistent, spent so totally for God in preparing the way for Jesus? The answer is simple: it was born from the relationship with God, from prayer, which was the thread that guided him throughout his existence. John was the divine gift for which his parents Zechariah and Elizabeth had been praying for so many years (cf. Lk 1:13); a great gift, humanly impossible to hope for, because they were both advanced in years and Elizabeth was barren (cf. Lk 1:7); yet nothing is impossible to God (cf. Lk 1:36). The announcement of this birth happened precisely in the place of prayer, in the temple of Jerusalem, indeed it happened when Zechariah had the great privilege of entering the holiest place in the temple to offer incense to the Lord (cf. Lk 1:8-20). John the Baptist’s birth was also marked by prayer: the Benedictus, the hymn of joy, praise and thanksgiving which Zechariah raises to the Lord and which we recite every morning in Lauds, exalts God’s action in history and prophetically indicates the mission of their son John: to go before the Son of God made flesh to prepare his ways (cf. Lk 1:67-79).

The entire existence of the Forerunner of Jesus was nourished by his relationship with God, particularly the period he spent in desert regions (cf. Lk 1:80). The desert regions are places of temptation but also where man acquires a sense of his own poverty because once deprived of material support and security, he understands that the only steadfast reference point is God himself. John the Baptist, however, is not only a man of prayer, in permanent contact with God, but also a guide in this relationship. The Evangelist Luke, recalling the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, the Our Father, notes that the request was formulated by the disciples in these words: “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his own disciples” (cf. Lk 11:1).

Dear brothers and sisters, celebrating the martyrdom of St John the Baptist reminds us too, Christians of this time, that with love for Christ, for his words and for the Truth, we cannot stoop to compromises. The Truth is Truth; there are no compromises. Christian life demands, so to speak, the “martyrdom” of daily fidelity to the Gospel, the courage, that is, to let Christ grow within us and let him be the One who guides our thought and our actions. However, this can happen in our life only if we have a solid relationship with God. Prayer is not time wasted, it does not take away time from our activities, even apostolic activities, but exactly the opposite is true: only if we are able to have a faithful, constant and trusting life of prayer will God himself give us the ability and strength to live happily and serenely, to surmount difficulties and to witness courageously to him. St John the Baptist, intercede for us, that we may be ever able to preserve the primacy of God in our life. Thank you.

[Pope Benedict, General Audience 29 August 2012]