Sunday, August 4, 2024 – Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle B Readings: Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15, Psalm 78 “The Lord gave them bread from heaven”, Ephesians 4:17, 20-24, John 6:24-35

                                     GIVE US THIS BREAD ALWAYS!
 
     Every Sunday, we leave our homes and forget the worries of work to go to Mass in the parish. Why we do it? Why have believers been doing this since the early centuries of Christianity? It will be very helpful for today and the two following Sundays to seek an answer in the reading from the Gospel of John in which he narrates the multiplication of the loaves and the Eucharistic discourse of Jesus. Jesus is the bread of life.
 
Sisters and brothers:
 
1. The people followed Jesus because he had multiplied bread and had satisfied the hunger of thou-sands of his followers. But Jesus reproached them: You seek me not because you saw miraculous signs but because you had eaten your fill. They were not really looking for the Jesus of the miracles, but the miracles of Jesus.
 
Man is a beggar. Man is a being full of needs. Nothing quite satisfies all of his desire. Then his cry is ad-dressed to someone to come to his aid. What about us? Do we participate in Sunday Mass because we feel hungry, afraid, we are overwhelmed?
 
2. Man needs salvation! It is true that many people just ask God for things. We ask for our daily bread and all we need to live, but these specific requests are expressing our need for God. Thus, St. Augustine warned: "God hears your call if you seek him. He does not listen if you are looking for other things through him." At the time of the communion, we also feel that Jesus makes that great revelation to us: "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst."
 
3. Jesus speaks of another bread. Life is a journey where we need to be fed in order to continue on, Jesus reminds us that He is the bread that gives eternal life. The great spiritual weakening of many people (lack of feelings, lack of love, lack of faith and hope, lack of solidarity with the weakest...) is because they do not eat properly, are anemic in spirit and stunted of hope.
 
Brothers and sisters: Let's make each Mass a true celebration as a personal encounter with Christ. It gives us the bread of the Word and the bread of his Body. A feast cannot be improvised. So let us promise to prepare for it during the week. Our prayer, our service to others, the fulfillment of our duty should be the bread that we take with us on Sunday for the Lord to bless and multiply.
 
Jesus has left us his life, his Church, and his body so that we might have life and abundant life. Our pray-er should be this: Lord, give us always this bread!
 
Source: ePriest.com / Best Practices and Homily Resources for Catholic Priests