Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Tag: Bread from heaven

  • OUR DEEPEST HUNGER IN LIFE

    OUR DEEPEST HUNGER IN LIFE

    August 1, 20210 – 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/080121.cfm)

    To feel hungry is a basic human experience. Thus, I am sure each of us has experienced that feeling of being hungry since we were babies. Babies especially would always cry when they are hungry. A parent’s automatic response to a crying baby is to feed the baby with milk. When the baby starts sucking, the baby also stops from crying. When we become adults, we continue such behavior though we do not cry anymore but feed ourselves with food that can satisfy our hunger.

    This human behavior in us is what we have heard in our readings this Sunday. The Book of Exodus told us the story of the Israelites. Since they fled from Egypt, their life was always uncertain. They were in the middle of the desert where there was no place to plant and cultivate something for their food nor a place to buy their supplies. The people became weary because of their difficult situation until they grew hungry. Moses who led and brought them out of Egypt had almost became a father to them. To him, the people cried out their needs. They cried and grumbled to Moses to provide them food because they were hungry. The Lord, in his goodness, sent food to the desert so that they will be satisfied.

    Our Gospel tells us of the same behavior. The people were in search of Jesus because they wanted Jesus to satisfy their hunger. They followed him after he did a miracle in feeding the five thousand people. The people recognized that Jesus will satisfy their needs. This became an opportunity for Jesus to teach them an important lesson.

    Jesus knew that the people were after him because of their hunger. However, the people were only concerned of an immediate satisfaction. They were limited in that satisfaction of a physical hunger. Thus, they were looking for Jesus to satisfy them immediately. In a way, they have become obsessed or fixated to what Jesus can provide to them. They were after the miracles of Jesus but not in the person of Jesus.

    Jesus understood them. Thus, he reminded them to seek the bread that gives eternal life and not the bread that perishes. This means that the people were invited to seek not those things that only provide instant and immediate satisfaction but the person of Jesus himself.

    This reminds me that we are not different from those people in the Bible. How many times have we sought to satisfy immediately our different forms of hunger? Jesus is not just talking about our physical hunger. Jesus points to us today to recognize our human hungers for acceptance, for recognition, for friendship, for love and intimacy, for justice, for peace and reconciliation.

    We cry out these many forms of hungers just like the Israelites in the Book of Exodus and in the Gospel. We tend to satisfy those longings and hungers immediately. Hence, instead of looking for what is essential and lasting, we resort to the promises of “instant satisfaction” and to an “immediate result.”

    Their consequences will surely be destructive, unhelpful and the corruption of life. Addictions such as in alcohol, drugs, sex or food are ways to satisfy our deepest hunger. Yet, because they only promise an instant gratification and so we hold on to those addictions to numb our hunger for love, for attention and intimacy. Our obsessive fixations in spending too much time in social media, or online games or with gadgets, remove us from the true and personal encounter with people. Because of the lack of human connection, we divert our need into what is temporary, virtual and not real. Our compulsive behaviors in gossiping, in defaming people and in finding the faults and weaknesses of others seemingly give us the image of a good person, righteous than others. However, these behaviors only blind us of our true longing to be recognized and be appreciated.

    Our obsession to be powerful, to exercise dominance and control over the weak and to resort to violent and aggressive actions apparently make us confident, independent and strong. However, they too blind us from that hunger to find our true self and our true potentials.

    Jesus invites us today to recognize our deepest hungers. Just like the Jews in the Gospel, Jesus reminds us today also not to seek to what is only perishable, and to what is only instant and temporary. Because these things will only lead us to addictions, unhealthy fixations and compulsive behaviors that do not give us life but rather death and hopelessness.

    Jesus invites us to recognize him, that is, to recognize God, His love and friendship with us as our food that will satisfy our hunger. He is the bread that gives us life. This Eucharist is the gift and our food that should satisfy our deepest human hunger. That is why, this Eucharist is more than what we think. This is not simply prayers and readings, standing and kneeling, singing and saying amen. This Eucharist is our very relationship with God and with one another. This is all about us and God, you and me and Jesus.

    I would like to invite you then, so that we will be able to make this Eucharist truly life-giving; ask the Lord to help us recognize our different hungers. Be mindful of our compulsive actions, fixations and some forms of addictions because those behaviors in us will tell us of our own hungers and needs. When we become conscious of those, hopefully, it will lead us to seek to what will last, to what is more essential in our relationships and to what will truly satisfy us. And above all, may we find Jesus and his love. Hinaut pa.

  • Enough

    Enough

    August 1, 2021 – 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/080121.cfm)

    It could happen that once in a while some wayward beggars would come to us & ask for some “bahaw” or left-over food to eat. Once I gave some enough food for a day to a beggar. As he received the food, he asked: “Walay kape ug saging man lang?” (How about some coffee & fruits for extra?). Though this irritated me, it also made me think: “If I’m going to give, why not give all – the full package deal with all the extras? Why only give enough for the day? Why not for the whole week?

    But as we all know, human as we are, we are not easily contented. Hard for us to be fully satisfied. We want more. We need more than we already have. Like that wayward beggar, we want some extra: extra rice, sauce, toppings, privileges, discount, bonus, payment and others, but effortless & easily, if possible, quickly. So, when is the limited resources that I have now, enough for me? When is the less that I have, enough for me to share with others who are in need? So, when is enough is enough?

    Somehow at the very heart of our readings today is the question about ENOUGH.

    In Exodus, we hear that after escaping slavery from Egypt, the people of Israel found themselves free but hungry in the desert. They needed food for the journey & they grumbly complained about their predicament. To the point of blaming Moses &  even preferring to be slave again in Egypt but nourished, rather than free but starving in the wilderness. Yahweh heard their cries & addressed their needs. God rained down bread from heaven for them, and they only have to gather enough bread for their daily portion.  Great! But they also asked: “What’s this?”. And perhaps may also have asked: “only this, fine flakes?” It might be from heaven, but why only biscuits/flakes? Why not pizza or burger? No extra drinks? And why gather only enough for the day? Why not save & reserve for tomorrow?

    In the same way in our gospel today, after they were fed and have their fill at the multiplication of loaves, the people followed Jesus because they want more. They never had enough. They need more extra from Jesus. In their mind, they would think: “Since you, Jesus have already fed us, what more can You offer us? What shall we do to have what You can give us? Do we need to work for food?

    Over and beyond our human need for survival & God’s saving act is the question of our Faith and Trust in God. The manna from heaven and the miracle of feeding thousands of people is not about the Gift, but about our faith in the Giver. What matter most then is not having enough or more than enough Food and blessings to receive, but more so about us believing & trusting in God’s way of taking care of us. It is all about having enough faith & trust in God’s work of giving us life to its fullness.   

    Through the manna from heaven, Yahweh gave the people enough manna provision for the day – not  pizza for the whole week, because as Yahweh said, “I will test them, to see whether they follow my instructions or not”. The graces before us now then is a test in our faith with God rather than rescue operation to satisfy our immediate & urgent needs. In the same way, there is more to the miracle of Jesus than just the feeding of the multitude. It is a challenge for the people-then & us-now, as Jesus said: to “BELIEVE in the one God sent”. In the same way as God sent manna from Heaven, God sent us His son, Jesus not just to satisfy our cravings, our needs & hunger for more, but more so to offer us fullness & meaningful life. Here, Jesus clearly proclaiming to us now: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

    Simply put: In life , Jesus is Enough for Us. He is all that we need in life, nothing more, nothing less. Only required of us now is to accept Him, as God-sent  bread of Life, and believe His life & witness as God’s work of salvation, is enough and more than enough for us, and for all.

    This is what St. Alphonsus de Liguori, the founder of the Redemptorists whom we also honor today believes. For St. Alphonsus, “With Him, there is fullness of redemption” – with Jesus, we got & have abundance grace & blessing. In other words, Jesus is enough & more than enough for us. And Jesus & all his offer of graces are given for all and not only for the few. All has a share in God’s blessing of Redemption – and this is what St. Alphonsus and we Redemptorists, & all of us Christian, believe & proclaim to all people in the world, most especially to the poor, neglected & most abandoned: Jesus, the bread of Life is enough for us & for all.

    When Jesus taught us to pray “Give us each day our daily bread”, he doesn’t want us just to express our needs, since the Father knows already what we need. But he wants us to express our faith in God that we believe and abide with whatever the Father wills for us. Thus, when all is said and done, it was not the manna that sustained the Israelites in the desert, it was not the bread and fishes in the Jesus’ time, it was not our daily bread that sustains us today. What sustained them and us today is our faith and trust in God.

    No matter how difficult life may be, for those who trust in God, and live a day at a time, rest assured, God’s blessing of manna from heaven falls everyday with Jesus always with us. Lord, our bread of life, Your Love & your grace is Enough for us. Continue to nourish & give us life especially now during these trying times of pandemic. Amen.