The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home
August 4, 2024 – Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
John 6:24-35
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
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After Jesus had fed the crowd with bread and fish, word quickly spread from village to village about this amazing event. No surprise there. We all need to eat. And we enjoy it all the more when the meal is free.
But Jesus came to live with us and feed us not simply to nourish our bodies, but also to give us a kind of nourishment that is of more value, wondrous food for our souls and spirits. He became one of us so that we might become have a more abundant life. And he showed us how to do this when he gave us himself!
He also gave us an example of how to best live this precious gift of life that we have been given by God. He showed through the example of his life his deep love for all. No exceptions. No limits. And we are invited to do the same. He directed us to go out into the world and do likewise.
In his words and example we also find nourishment. He taught us to love God and neighbor, the two greatest of the commandments that nourish our lives. He often spoke of God’s profound love of us, all of us. And we are directed to express our love for God by generously responding to the needs of the poor, the hungry, the homeless.
And there is a certain irony in all this. For in the giving of ourselves to others, we are nourished. Deeper life flows in us and through us in helping those with great need. Divine life actually increases within us. This is among the greatest of all life’s paradoxes. I like how it is expressed this way: For it is in giving that we receive.
Did you ever notice that in the many biblical accounts of Jesus being involved with food that Jesus himself is never described as himself eating? He is always in the role of feeding others, with the greatest example of that being the Last Supper when he gives himself as food.
In a world where the act of receiving or getting is thought of as having the greatest value or importance, the example of Jesus as the one who gives of himself is all the more needed. All of us are receivers of life with all its blessings, but that’s not the end of the story. We are also immersed in countless opportunities to be givers of life to others. We might call this “the flow of love.” Which truth is at the heart of the gospel.
David M. Thomas, PhD