August 1 - 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reading I: Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15
Responsorial Psalm: 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54
Reading II: Ephesians 4:17, 20-24
Gospel: John 6:24-35

Today’s first reading from Exodus tells us the entire community GRUMBLED to God. Exodus tells us the Lord told them, “I’ve heard the grumbling…”  And God promised food to our hungry spiritual ancestors. Even though they were led out of slavery and received needed food, they forgot what God had done. Like us, they forgot how God cares for them. 

Today’s excerpt from the letter to the Ephesians emphasizes the changed way of life that we experience as we mature in the Body of Christ. We grow into our Baptism by making a serious adult commitment. Yes, we, already baptized into the Catholic church continue to pray with scripture and our community and find our spirituality deepening beyond rote prayer into prayer that includes compassion for all humanity, especially those who suffer. We are experiencing conversion. As our focus deepens, the Lord’s prayer takes on new depth. We puzzle over, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” and ask God how we can cooperate in making that a reality. God’s Holy Spirit is trying to permeate our being to make us new. God’s grace is trying to flow through us into making a positive difference in our world. The point is not to be seen or noticed or thanked. It is to simply be open to God’s energizing love and unparalleled joy. It is to be open to God’s hopeful vision for humanity. It is to cooperate with grace. 

And today’s Gospel from St John alerts us to be alert to God’s signs all around us all the time. Okay, maybe we won’t witness the miracle of the loaves and fishes but we do catch a glimpse of God’s work in agencies all over the world such as FOODLINK feeding thousands of people and creatively responding to need by nurturing the skills and abilities of impoverished people as they become cooks and staff. And Foodlink nurtures people with disabilities among their volunteers. All of that are signs of God’s care. Among the people our Mercy Fund has helped over the years are founders and supporters of new food distribution centers in Fairport begun during the pandemic to meet new and unforeseen needs.  

According to St. John, Jesus wants people to truly SEE the importance of God’s signs and wonders. Jesus wanted the people who came to him who had been fed at the miracle of the loaves and fishes to come to him as eternal bread, the Bread of Life. We do not need Jesus to perform miracles in order to believe in him. Our spiritual hungers draw us to Mass. We come to the altar for Bread from God giving life to the full. The whole person of Jesus nourishes believers into fullness of life. The Bread of the Holy Thursday Last Supper fed the Christians of the first century and feeds us today.  

Still, we grumble. Let us grumble less in self-interest and more for the needs of the common good. Let us bring every concern, scandal, proposal, policy, procedure, protocol, and every human need to God. We know what the bread of Life does for us. We are strengthened, given courage; we SEE the suffering all over the world and are moved to bring every need to God again and again. God gives each need back to us with a clarity to SEE what we can do, however small. We are responsible for addressing the needs of suffering humanity, but we are never alone. If we are as alert as God wants us to be of signs all around us, we will see how to appropriately help. We will look at every possibility; we will make yet another call and write yet another or our first letter. We will nurture the Body of Christ because that is who we are. We are fed the Body of Christ to be the Body of Christ. Most of the world hungers. We who are full with the Bread of Life have Jesus’ love to share.

Dr. Deni Mack, Pastoral Associate Emerita