Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 1, 2021
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 113
Reading I
The whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
The Israelites said to them,
“Would that we had died at the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt,
as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!
But you had to lead us into this desert
to make the whole community die of famine!”
Then the LORD said to Moses,
“I will now rain down bread from heaven for you.
Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion;
thus will I test them,
to see whether they follow my instructions or not.
“I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites.
Tell them: In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh,
and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread,
so that you may know that I, the LORD, am your God.”
In the evening quail came up and covered the camp.
In the morning a dew lay all about the camp,
and when the dew evaporated, there on the surface of the desert
were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground.
On seeing it, the Israelites asked one another, “What is this?”
for they did not know what it was.
But Moses told them,
“This is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.”
Responsorial Psalm
- (24b) The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
What we have heard and know,
and what our fathers have declared to us,
We will declare to the generation to come
the glorious deeds of the LORD and his strength
and the wonders that he wrought.
R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
He commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven;
he rained manna upon them for food
and gave them heavenly bread.
R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
Man ate the bread of angels,
food he sent them in abundance.
And he brought them to his holy land,
to the mountains his right hand had won.
R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
Reading II
Brothers and sisters:
I declare and testify in the Lord
that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do,
in the futility of their minds;
that is not how you learned Christ,
assuming that you have heard of him and were taught in him,
as truth is in Jesus,
that you should put away the old self of your former way of life,
corrupted through 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.
Alleluia
- Alleluia, alleluia.
One does not live on bread alone,
but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
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.”
So they said to him,
“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?
What can you do?
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:
He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”
So Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.”
So they said to him,
“Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them,
“I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”
Reflection: JESUS, THE BREAD OF LIFE
When you befriend a dog, it wags its tail and shows it is happy getting attention from you. Then you give it a bone or a biscuit or some morsels on food, and once again it wags its tail and comes closer to you. What it wants is the attention and the little lolly pops. And we get the impression that the dog loves us and cares for us. It loves us for the wrong reasons - the attention we give and the food dished out. If we stop giving these, it may not care for us or come near us anymore. Jesus found that the crowds were looking for him, but for the wrong reasons. He had earlier worked a miracle in their favour and fed a whole lot of people with five loaves and two fish. It became clear to him that they were searching for him for what he could give them by way of food rather than for what He was in Himself. They failed to see that he was the one sent to them from God. Jesus confronts their attitude. He said: "You seek me because of the loaves you ate. Do not labour for the food that cannot last but for the food that endures to eternal life". It was obvious that they were looking to him for material things and not for what He was. He tells them that he is the true bread, the bread of life given by God as a gift to them, very much like how God Himself, not Moses, had given their fathers manna in the desert. Rather than working another miracle, Jesus speaks to them and shows them more clearly how unique he was and how worthy of their faith and trust he was. He began by telling them that he was the fulfilment of all that Moses did and stood for: “It was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven" (v. 32). This change from the past tense 'gave' to the present 'gives' is significant. The bread of the past, the manna, satisfied the Israelites physical needs and sustained them for their journey to the Promised Land. Now the new bread, the only Son of God in their midst, is certainly more than the manna. He has come to satisfy every hunger of the human heart. Moses gave a food that perished every night and led them on an earthly promised land. But Jesus gives himself and leads them out of slavery from sin into the kingdom of heaven, the land of all God's promises. In Shakespeare's plays, the main character reveals himself or herself, by a sentence beginning with the words, “I am". In today's gospel Jesus makes an “I am” statement, initiating his self-revelation. Jesus says: “I am the bread of life”. He not only multiplies bread as we have seen just a little before, but he is bread. Jesus is offering the crowds a two-fold message. He tells them that he is God's gift to them and not the material bread they have eaten. Hence, they need to have faith in him and in his teaching. This two-fold message calls forth a two-fold attitude towards Jesus and towards others - Jesus is the Son of God and our fellow brethren are also made in God's own image and likeness. With the feeding of the people daily with manna in the desert, God taught them to trust in his providence. In the prayer that Jesus taught us, he says, "...give us this day our daily bread...", once again asking us to trust that the Father will provide for our needs. We accept Jesus, the bread of life, as God's gift to us. We put our faith in Him and learn to do the same with other people as well. People are God's gift to us. And when we recognise this and put our faith in them, they, as well as we ourselves are transformed.