Homily For Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B, 4th August, 2024

 

Reading: Exo.16:2-4.12-15; Ps. 78; Eph.4:17.20-24; John 6:24-35

Rev.  Fr. Emmanuel Emenike  Onyia

 

“LORD GIVE US THIS BREAD ALWAYS”

 

Reflecting on the ugly situation of hunger, bad governments, greed and selfishness of people and the protests going on in our societies, country and the world at large one can begin to lose hope in humanity and even in God. Today, people are confused; they don’t even know what to believe or who to trust anymore. The questions that come to mind are: To whom shall we run to? What shall we do? Any hope for a better tomorrow? What signs are there for us to see in order to be assured of a better and brighter future for humanity? This present disposition can be likened to the disposition of the people in our Gospel passage today.

 

Here, the Jews who had witnessed the great miracle of the multiplication of loaves and fishes, when confronted with the hard teaching about the person of Jesus, asked Jesus for a sign to prove that he is the Messiah, a sign like the manna which their forefathers ate in the desert as we have it in our first reading today. They said to Jesus that God gave them bread from heaven to eat. For the Jews, the manna was a gift from heaven through their father Moses. So, they wanted such a miraculous sign again.

 

However, Jesus made it clear to the crowd that it was God rather than Moses who provided the manna for the Israelites. Also, he identified himself as the true bread of life that comes from God. That he is God’s divine intervention in our world. He is the gift of God to the world. So he told them solemnly: “I AM the bread of life.”  Using the word “I AM”, he strongly identifies himself with God, a statement that recalls the name God revealed to Moses in the burning bush (Exod 3:14). Jesus goes on to say: “Whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

 

Thus, the true manna, the true bread from heaven, is the Word of God, which is Jesus, and this Word is what he teaches us to believe in. Today, this Word is now addressed to us, and we shall do well to pay attention to it because with the events going on in the world today, we too can find ourselves in an ugly situation.

 

A situation where we may no longer have faith in God and start doubting his existence as we are now scared of losing our lives, our health, wealth or even our loved ones. The worst of it is not knowing what to believe anymore, especially in the way our society has been structured; people no longer know their left from their right.

 

Thus, St. Paul, in our second reading, says: unless we have failed to hear him properly when we were taught the truth about our Lord Jesus. For assuming that we have heard about him properly and were taught in him, then, we must have given up our old way of life; we must have put aside our old self, which gets corrupted by following our ugly desires. Our mind must have been renewed by a spiritual revolution so that we can put on the new self that has been created in God’s way, in the goodness and holiness of the truth.

 

Dear friends, I don’t know how you have personally experienced Jesus. I don’t know how deep is you’re understanding of Jesus in the Eucharist as the Bread of Life. I don’t know how the world has separated us from Jesus, our Bread of Life. Are you confused about your faith in God?  I don’t know what you are going through now. Does it seem as if all hope is lost and there is no opportunity again for you? Jesus says: I AM the bread of life, blessed is the one who does not lose faith in him. 

So let us ask the Lord to give us this bread always. Of course, he is waiting for us at the Eucharist, where he feeds us spiritually. Therefore, be courageous, do not be afraid. Be patient, do not lose heart. Rather, let us look up to Jesus, the Bread of Life, for he will surely come to save us.

 

LET US PRAY: Lord God, whenever we come to Jesus and bond ourselves closely to him, we are identifying ourselves with You. May we constantly embrace Your love for us in the Eucharist as You feed us daily with the bread of life through Your Word. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.  God bless you.