18th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR B 24

18th SUNDAY, 04 AUGUST 2024: EXODUS 16. 2-4, 12-15; EPH 4. 17, 20-24; JOHN 6. 24-35 Focus: Quicker gains, shallow pleasures can be very gratifying, but they are short-lived and passing. At the end, they will create more dissatisfaction 1. In the gospel passage, John 6. 24-35, people are searching for Jesus. In fact, it is a matter of feeling great. One must feel proud that they are sought, that others recognize their worth and need. 2. If we were in the place of Jesus, surely we will be excited that we are able to pull crowds to ourselves. What a sense of pride we may feel that we are mass appealers! 3. But Jesus is a contrast! He is not carried away by the numbers. He is not interested about his popularity. The concern is not to bolster his ego. Rather, his total orientation is people's growth. 4. Jesus wants to draw their attention from the peripheral and superficial toward the profound and eternal, from the physical and material toward the spiritual, from the perishable toward the imperishable, from the temporary to the everlasting. 5. Accordingly, Jesus unearths their motive in seeking him. Are they seeking him because they were fed and had their fill? Is the memory of the multiplication of the loaves and fish still fresh in their memories? 6. Accordingly he directly questions them, why are you searching for me? He knows that they are more concentrating on the power of him and not on the effect on them.He also reproaches them for their shallow pursuit of merely the material and physical: do not search for what is perishable. 7. Two questions and pointers can help us. What are we searching? Why are we searching? What are we searching? implies the object or the target of our search. Why are we searching refers to the motive of our search. The people were searching for food. They were searching so as to satisfy their hunger. 8. These two questions also help us for a true self- check and self- discovery. A honest reflection will reveal to us that many search mostly what pertains to the world and earthly life. 9. It includes money, possessions, comforts, sex, power, position, intelligence and competence, talent and skill, prestige, privilege, name, popularity, success, achievements, etc. Most of the time, energies, capacities, resources is consumed to acquire these elements. 10. And why do they search for these things? The simplest reason is satisfaction and happiness. People make themselves satisfied and happy by these things. 11. To make it more clear, these things are sought, because people believe they give physical gratification and pleasure, material satisfaction, psychological and emotional relief, relaxation and comfort, intellectual efficiency and calibre, social recognition and status, a sense of dignity and importance, etc. 12. But the truth is, nothing of these can give us lasting happiness and deep satisfaction. They can give only a temporary pleasure and a peripheral satisfaction. Why they cannot give is, it is their nature of limitation. 13. They are temporary and temporal. How can a temporary and temporal thing give an eternal joy? On the other hand, man has an unrestricted desire to know and an insatiable thirst to be happy. And so, what is restricted cannot satisfy the unrestricted. 14. The sadness and foolishness of many is: they do not realize the nature and capacity of these worldly things. They are shallow and transient. Further, what is lasting and imperishable is neglected because of what is temporary and perishable. 15. The Jews were fondly recalling the manna in the desert. Certainly, it was food from heaven, gifted to satisfy their hunger. However, it was a temporary satisfaction and perishable. 16. But now, here is Jesus, the Bread of life that is imperishable. Those who ate manna died but those who receive Jesus, will live forever. Only he can give the eternal joy and fulfilment, and he gives it in abundance. 17. In the light of the second reading, Ephesians 4. 20-24, the greatest sign and effect of seeking the eternal bread of life is a deep renewal of life. One who is oriented to eternity and the spiritual, puts off the old self of sin and puts on the new self of grace and righteousness Direction: Those who seek the perishable and neglect the imperishable are like those who run after false brooks, and abandon the deep and perpetual spring.