19TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - B
The people, after witnessing the multiplication of the loaves and fish, wanted to make Jesus their king! Jesus knew their intent so withdrew to the mountains! Since the people were looking for food, he told them that he was the Bread of Life! Hearing that, they started to complain to each other: "how can he say 'I have come down from heaven?' when we know his father and mother!"
How could the five thousand men forget the
miracle just so easily? Very simple: they saw the
multiplication of the loaves and the fish but did
not understand the sign and the meaning of the event. They ate to their hearts content but they were still hungry deep within. Whilst their concern was filling in their hungry stomachs, Jesus wanted to give them something more than satisfying their physical hunger. But since their concern was just in the level of the material, they could not understand what Jesus was saying so they started to complain.
In one way or another we have witnessed many miracles in our lives! Some of them are spectacular like healing from cancer, surviving an accident, receiving an unexpected gift that we
don't deserve; others are the simplest like waking
up alive in the morning, the presence of our loved ones at home, the sunshine, the rain and many others. Some of them are most common so we just don't mind and appreciate them; others are impossible in our eyes so we tend to give them more attention. Either grand or simple, they are signs pointing to God! For an agnostic, the sunshine is just coming from the sun and there's no way of knowing God through that simple fact. For an atheist, surviving an accident is no more than just a pure luck hence not worth of any belief in God! Nothing more, nothing less!
We have seen the Jews who after witnessing the miracle of the multiplication complained and expressed their disbelief in Jesus. But for us believers, after witnessing the miracles in our lives, what do we have to complain for?
When Jesus proclaims "I am the Bread of Life" he invites us to step up higher in the way we look at things! It's not bad to be concerned with our bodily needs; we all need to survive! But not the way of the jungle which is the survival of the fittest. Others may have hooked up in building their future that they have forgotten to live in the present. Suddenly looking back they realise how much they have missed in life even if they are successful in the eyes of the world. In as much as we are bodied beings, but we don't forget that we are also spiritual who are capable of transcending the physical idiosyncrasies of our existence. This is what Jesus offers to us: to eat the spiritual food that endures to eternal life. This is the living Eucharist that the Jews and the world fail to see!
What miracles have you witnessed today?
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