Mr. and Mrs. Rodriquez came to our sharing parish picnic. They have five sons and each son has a sister who has five daughters, each of whom has one brother each. How many of them came to the picnic?
What I just shared with you is a riddle, and no doubt that you are trying to come up with an answer. Some of us feel the need to be able to explain and reconcile everything more than others. (I am one of those people, and it drives my wife nuts!) But generally, most of us like things to make sense, and we like to know the answer. So to save you from the agony of trying to figure out the riddle, here is the answer. How many people came to our picnic? Two people! I only said that Mr. and Mrs. Rodriquez went to the picnic. I did not say that anyone else accompanied them. Now we can move on because that was a logical answer, and it was something that we can explain.
In our Gospel reading yesterday, the Jews couldn’t figure something out, and it bothered them. They couldn’t figure out how Jesus could be Heavenly Bread. Jesus tries explaining it, but it still just didn’t make sense.
It is interesting that Jesus should call himself “bread that came down from heaven” until you realize who he was talking to. This is the same group of people who were fed by the five loaves of bread and two fish just a day or two before. They saw Jesus as a provider of bread. The part they got hung up on was when he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” Well, that just didn’t make any sense, because his Mom and Dad live right here in the same town that they did. The Jews were bothered because Jesus told them something that their human reason couldn’t figure out. They certainly wanted this bread, but they got hung up on the ingredients.
We often get frustrated when we cannot figure out the answers to our questions and problems. We often get tired of thinking and often want to give up. Sometime, like the prophet Elijah, we lose our appetite for doing the Lord’s work. And sometimes, we even doubt our own beliefs because we get hung up on our own human reason.
People often tell me that they don’t come to church very often, if at all. So I have to ask them: what are you doing to nourish yourself? What about being a part of a community of faith where each member nourishes one another? What about the importance of being fed with God’s Word, and then taking that Word to the streets and serving others? What about being the Body of Christ to those who hunger and thirst? They usually don’t have an answer to these questions.
There are so many temptations for us NOT to go to church, or to go for the wrong reasons. We too, fall into the same trap as the Jews in the Gospel, only seeing Jesus as an earthly bread provider. And we quickly think that all is right with God when everything on earth is going well. But as soon as things get rough, we make sure we get back in the, what I call, the one-hour bread line, thinking that the earthly loaves will come easier if we do.
Another temptation is that our society is so focused on material stuff: possessing the latest gadgets, wearing the latest fashions, and simply trying to out-do everyone else. We often get sucked into the worlds’ recipe for happiness. But is this really a recipe for happiness?
God offers us a recipe that the world cannot. Only the Bread God offers gives us real sustenance, sustenance that will carry us through this life and into life eternal.
When we can see in Jesus what God truly is for us, we can believe again and be thankful that God has never stopped loving us and continues to provide ample nourishment, to strengthen and encourage us in the Eucharistic feast that we celebrate together.
Jesus is offering us this heavenly bread. He wants us to have it, he wants us to believe it, he wants us to understand it, because it is a recipe for heaven. And heaven is just where he wants us to be!
