5 August 2018
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
In today’s second reading, St. Paul exhorts the Ephesians not to live in the futility of their minds for that is not the way they “learned Christ.” It’s a curious expression that suggests that Christ is both taught and learned. In our own lives, we might consider with gratitude how we have come to know Christ through the faithful ones that came before us, through the reading of sacred Scripture, through the Mass and personal prayer, to name a few. Those people, events, and moments have brought us closer to knowing the person of Christ.
We must not, however, believe that we are ever done learning who Christ is. It’s never a done deal – not in this life, anyway. Today’s gospel is a good reminder to those of us who have experienced Christ, of how wrong we can be in our understanding of him. The crowds that followed him had just experienced the miraculous multiplication of the loaves, and yet they ask him for a sign, that they might “see and believe” in him. We might find their behavior shocking, even outrageous, but we’re not so different when we have doubts even after experiencing Christ’s miraculous love in our own lives or when we ask more and more of God. Jesus’ patient response says it all. He feeds our hungry, wayward hearts with his words that teach us and give us wisdom. Each and every day may we seek him in word and sacrament, that as St. Paul says, we may truly learn Christ.