24 April 2023
Monday of the Third Week of Easter
There are many instances in the Gospel in which Jesus is surrounded by crowds — people flocking to see Him and to hear what He had to say. I often wonder what they were looking for, what they thought they would find. What were they expecting from Jesus? In the readings today, Jesus directly addresses this particular question. He tells the people that they were not looking for him because they saw the signs He had performed, but rather because Had had fed them through the miracle of the fish and the loaves.
What Jesus identifies here is that there is a subtle difference between showing someone something impressive or teaching them something interesting and physically nourishing them. No matter how enlightening an idea or concept might be, it cannot suffice to satisfy the physical needs of the body. Ideas cannot substitute for substantive food. Jesus makes a subtle move here and explains to the people that what they really desire is to be fed, and the only real food is the bread that the Son of Man will give them, the bread of the Eucharist that contains within it the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ Himself. It is not merely that He will provide food for temporal nourishment, but rather that He will give us Himself in fullness of relationship that alone can truly feed us and bring us to eternal life with God.