The Greater Gift

Jesus said to the crown, "Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you." John 6:22-29


When Jesus fed the hungry in the wilderness, they were concerned only about stuffing food between their teeth.
They did not ask about the goodness and generosity of God who cares for them;
they did not inquire about their ways of sharing with others and so of imitating the goodness of Jesus.
They did not stop to listen to the words of Jesus, ponder them prayerfully and ask for their implications in their daily lives.
They simply wanted more food.

Eventually, John's gospel links this miraculous multiplication of bread and fish with the Eucharist—Jesus' very own body and blood given for the life of the world.
The Eucharist enables us to look with the eyes of Jesus and to see so much more than we ever thought to exist round about us.
We look at strangers and see them as our brothers and sisters.
We look at people whom we consider hopeless, intransigent and incommunicable, and find a bond of concern and interests about which to speak with them.
Devils somehow turn into saints!
Those who seemed lost have been found!

Every person and every event become a sign.
They are like the tip of an iceberg, which conceals far more than it reveals, which alerts us to a mystery of power beyond our imagination.
It asks us to look long and to study with open minds.
We look with our feelings and intuitions, with our hopes and dreams.