Once a year our city draws thousands of people from neighboring cities to watch a thirty-minute display of “spectacular” fireworks. People cheer and stand in awe as they watch the bursting displays of fire light up the dark, spring sky. Yet, at the same time God has given us an explosion of millions of blossoms—pink, white, purple—pushing their way out of thousands of tree limbs around our city, and who really notices these wonders of nature. One small blossom is more beautiful, intricate, and miraculous than any work of fire, and these last not just a few seconds but for weeks. How is it that we marvel at the superficial creations of man and are “ho-hum” to the great works of God?
We are no different than the people of Jesus’ time. They too were addicted to the spectacular. Though Jesus worked thousands of miracles, they were not satisfied. They wanted him to put on a better show for them, to do something that would draw their “ooh’s and aah’s” (John 6:30-35).
“The crowd said to Jesus: ‘What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
What new thing could Jesus do to entertain them? If he did cause clouds to form and loaves of bread to start raining upon the earth, do you think the people would have had a change of heart? Or do you think they would applaud and then challenge him to do something even more spectacular? They quoted the Scriptures that told how God worked the “manna miracle” in the desert, and wanted Jesus to prove to them that he was at least as powerful as Moses was. We wonder if some of these same people were part of the crowd who screamed “crucify him, crucify him” when Jesus was presented before the Roman authorities. Were these people seeking a deeper conversion of heart or a new event to stimulate their senses?
“So, Jesus said to them ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave 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.”
Standing right in front of them was God’s greatest miracle, not just some pieces of manna, but his only Son. And they wanted something greater than Jesus.
“So, they said to Jesus, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’ Jesus said to them ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will not hunger and whoever believes in me will not thirst.”
It was time for Jesus to give them this new manna. What would it look like; what would it taste like? They wanted God’s new bread to rain down upon them “always” so that they would never have to work for their food again. Little did they know that in just a short time Jesus would give himself as the true bread in the Eucharist. This bread would not be a new kind of heavenly substance; it would be the very body and blood of God’s Son. Jesus is the bread of life. Without him a human being will starve to death. The human heart yearns to eat of the presence of God. In his great mercy God did the unthinkable: he let his own Son become bread that could be eaten, so that the deepest hunger and thirst of man could be satisfied.
Sadly, aren’t the people of our generation just like those who challenged Jesus? Aren’t we looking for something new, better, and more entertaining to stir our senses? Haven’t we become so used to Jesus’ body and blood available every day at Mass that we don’t even bother showing up? God loves us so much that he gave us more than we could ever ask for. Today he continues to give the greatest of all gifts, the Body and Blood of his only Son– to fill us with his love, to break the ties of sin, and to qualify us for admission into his heavenly kingdom.
What more could God possibly do for us?
