Monday Reflection

Daily Gospel Reflection April 27^th 2020

Gospel                                                                      JN 6:22-29

[After Jesus had fed the five thousand men, his disciples saw him walking on the sea.]
The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea
saw that there had been only one boat there,
and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat,
but only his disciples had left.
Other boats came from Tiberias
near the place where they had eaten the bread
when the Lord gave thanks.
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they themselves got into boats
and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
And when they found him across the sea they said to him,
“Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered them and said,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me
not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.”
So they said to him,
“What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”
Jesus answered and said to them,
“This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”

Dear Friends and Family,

            The day before this conversation the crowd of five thousand had been fed.  They follow Jesus to see if he would give them another free lunch.  The crowd is caught up focusing on their immediate needs.  Jesus invites them to think bigger.  Jesus invites them to ask for something that is eternal, not something that is temporal.  The crowd responds in right fashion by asking Jesus what they must do.  How should they ready themselves to receive such an eternal gift?  Jesus makes it simple, believe in the one God has sent, believe in me.

            Today it is easy for us to be just like the crowd that followed Jesus.  We call out to our God and ask him to satisfy our immediate needs; it may be food, it may be a job, it may be protection, it may be healing.  We are caught up in the fears of the moment and we have a hard time looking beyond this moment.  The challenges of each day ebb and flow through life, but the solution is always the same, believe in Jesus Christ.  This is our work.  This is how we work out our salvation, believing in Jesus.  None of us earns the gift of eternal life, but we have to be properly disposed to receive the gift our heavenly Father offers.  It’s during the hard times, when the truly important elements of life rise to forefront. 

            Jesus is setting the crowd up.  He knows their problems, he knows their hunger, he knows how they are oppressed and he knows their helplessness in light of it all.  So he is about to offer them something that will set them free.  But it will begin with a belief in him.  So today let us ask ourselves, what are we longing for?  It may be food, it may be a job, it may be for healing or protection, but those are our temporal needs.   What spiritually needs have we long neglected that have come to the forefront of our lives?  Let us pray that as our belief in Jesus grows our spiritual and temporal needs will be satisfied by our God that longs to give us more than what we ask.