Homily for 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
18th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Aug. 4, 2024
John 6: 24-35
Villa Maria, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

“Don’t work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (John 6: 27).

We’ve begun reading most of St. John’s long ch. 6, which begins with his multiplying loaves and fish to feed a huge crowd of people who followed him to hear him teach and to witness healings.  The chapter then reports how Jesus and the apostles crossed the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum, including Jesus’ walking on the water (6:16-21); our sequence of readings has skipped over that.

So we and the crowd find Jesus in Capernaum, which he’s made his home base; as we’ll learn toward the end of the chapter, they find him specifically in the synagog (v. 59), which suggests that it’s the Sabbath.

When the people ask how he’s gotten there—they hadn’t seen him leave the other shore of the lake—he tells them frankly that they’re chasing him only because he fed them—rather like your dog when it hears the can opener.  They’d seen him do great “signs”—St. John’s word for miracles—but hadn’t understood them:  “You’re looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled” (6:26).

That’s when Jesus urges them to look for something more substantial, “the food that endures for eternal life.”

What do we really hunger for?

I confess that sometimes when I’m at morning meditation or even celebrating Mass, my mind may wander off toward breakfast.  Not good, of course!

When the Devil tempted Jesus in the desert to turn stones into bread, Jesus quoted from the book of Deuteronomy:  “Not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (8:3).  Jesus is telling the crowd at Capernaum more or less the same thing, and he tells me the same thing when my mind wanders toward breakfast.

So what is the more substantial food that the Son of Man—Jesus Christ—wants to give us?  He tells us “the work of God is that you believe in the one he sent” (6:29).  Faith in Jesus is our meat and potatoes.  “The bread of God is what comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (6:33).  Jesus continues:  “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (6:35).

Jesus hasn’t yet begun to speak of the Eucharist.  He’s still talking about himself as the Word of God, the Divine Word that gives life to our souls, “the food that endures for eternal life.”

In the collect today, we prayed that God the Father restore what he’s created and keep safe what he’s restored.  As we know well, he created men and women in his own image; thru Jesus he’s restored that image and works to keep us safe from the temptations of the Devil.  The Devil wants to lead us astray, as he did our 1st ancestors in the Garden of Eden.  Following Jesus, listening to his teaching, acting on his teaching is what keeps us safe.  “Truth is in Jesus, that you should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted thru deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth” (Eph 4:21-24).

Keep the image of God that’s been restored in you by attending to his Word, “the true bread from heaven” (John 6:32).  Read the Scriptures.  Meet Jesus in the Scriptures.  Know Jesus in the Scriptures.  Absorb God’s living Word, “the food that endures for eternal life,” so that you’ll be fully united and renewed in him.