[ Today's Readings ]
Jesus can provide for us. He is enough even when it seems like our needs are too great.
"Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough
for each of them to have a little."
Jesus shows the crowd that he is able to provide for them. He shows us the same. But he doesn't give us bread to promise that he will always give us bread. He gives us what we think we need so that we are ready to listen when he offers us something even more important: his own Body and Blood.
Still, we misunderstand. We're all too ready to put him in charge of our practical concerns but not terribly interested in the greater gift of the Eucharist.
Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off
to make him king,
he withdrew again to the mountain alone.
This tends to make us fair weather friends of Jesus because we hold it against him when the circumstances take a turn for the worse. We blame him for it. How different this is from the disciples who know the true value of the gift they have in Christ.
So they left the presence of the Sanhedrin,
rejoicing that they had been found worthy
to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.
And all day long, both at the temple and in their homes,
they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the Christ, Jesus.
Jesus gives us bread so that we can realize that we cannot live by bread alone. Once we realize that the words that God speaks are more important even than our mortal lives we can begin to live fearlessly. We can suffer courageously for the sake of the name. We have been given the bread of heaven. It is worth any price.
One thing I ask of the LORD
this I seek:
To dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
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