Gospel JN 6:30-35
The crowd said to Jesus:
“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 Jesus,
“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:
“The crowd said to Jesus:
“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?
What can you do?”
There was a mentality among the people of Jesus’ day where they were looking for Him to perform some kind of “magic act,” such as making the sun go dark or the moon disappear.
He did not respond to their demands.
“So they said to Jesus,
“Sir, give us this bread always.”
They wanted Jesus to do something to “prove” that he was who he claimed to be, the son of God.
Throughout His ministry, Jesus did perform many miracles. But, He did not perform miracles on demand to impress people.
He performed them to help people, making the blind see, the deaf hear, the crippled walk and the leper cleansed.
In answer to their cries for a sign, “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.”
Today, people continue to pray for miracles: the farmer prays for rain, the flood victim prays for the sun to shine and we all pray for ourselves and others to “be cured.”
It is human nature to turn to God in our times of trouble.
But, hopefully, whether or not what we pray for is granted, our hearts and minds do not hunger or thirst.
And, in faith, we trust and accept that in all things, God knows what is best.
Two thousand years after His resurrection, Christians throughout the world know the true peace that comes from carrying on the work of Christ.
In tending to the sick, feeding the poor, teaching the Word, visiting the imprisoned, and clothing the naked, Christians find the peace of heart and mind that Jesus promised.
Perhaps the question the people of Jesus’ day should have asked is, “What sign can ‘we do‘ that we may see and believe in you?”
Just perhaps, God did not send Jesus to change the world, but to teach us how us how to change the world. – – Unknown