August 16, 2015 — Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Prv 9: 1-6; Ps 34: 2-7; Eph 5: 15-20; Jn 6: 51-58
Have you ever been hungry? Really hungry? People who have experienced intense hunger may appreciate Jesus’ words that He is the “Bread of Life” to a greater extent than others. We are aware that the world is filled with people who hunger and thirst, but most of us have never experienced the true pain of that experience.
While most of us are fortunate enough to avoid the pains of physical hunger, in our modern world and society, spiritual hunger runs rampant.
When the Lord says in today’s Gospel “This is the bread that came down from Heaven… whoever eats this bread will live forever,” He is addressing a need we have that is much deeper than physical hunger. He is also telling us that the reward for eating this bread — for taking it into our inner being, for changing our mind and heart because of it — is eternal life. Blessed Mother Teresa said, “The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.” This is the hunger we need to deal with in our faith lives, for when we love, we are beginning to satisfy that spiritual hunger to which the Lord refers.
