Whom do I seek?

 

The Bread of Life is a painting by Michael Torevell 

Three serious questions are asked here.

What is it that I seek in life?

Where do I  find joy in my life right now?

Do I find joy in what I seek?

When, as we read in John 6:22-37, Jesus and his disciples saw the crowds looking for them on the other side of sea in the area of Capernaum they knew that the miraculous and the extraordinary had drawn them.  The people were seeking the miracle more than the sign that the evangelist, John, wishes to highlight.

Like the people who followed Jesus to the other side of the lake we can miss the Signs of God in our chaotic, broken but beautiful and mystery-laden world. We seek the wrong type of bread in the wrong sorts of places when the real bread of God’s word and loving sacramental presence is freely on offer. This is the true bread ‘come down from heaven’ and it is also freely available to those who seek and come to be nourished in the Sacrament.   Nobody can take this gift from us.

A key saying of Jesus is found in verse 37:

‘He who comes to me I will not cast out’ (verse 37)

A key message and lesson in reading the entire chapter 6 of St John is that Jesus assures us that he will not turn anyone away. Rather, he asks that we trust or believe in him (verse 29) and be open to the gift of love. Each time we come forward to receive Holy Communion, this promise is fulfilled in a concrete way. We are not turned away; instead, we are welcomed, fed and drawn into communion with Christ himself. Faith leads to a coming forward, receiving and abiding, all of which are realised in the Eucharist where Christ remains in us and we in him.

The crowds sought bread that perishes, food for a moment. But at every Mass Christ gives us the food that endures to eternal life – not merely teaching, but himself, offered again sacramentally on the altar. The answer to the three questions posed, above, is Christ the true Bread of Life; not just some Thing but some One. True joy is not found in what we consume, but in receiving and becoming what we receive. The Eucharist forms us into Christ, so that our lives become a giving of ourselves.