By the Rev’d Jim Lam

Season: 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Readings: 2 Samuel 18:5-9,15,31-33 | Ephesians 4:25-5:2 | John 6:35, 41-51

I wonder what you had for breakfast this morning. Coffee? toast?  Or, perhaps, you didn’t have anything.

We eat every day.  Sometimes three times a day, sometimes more than that.  How important is food in our lives? 

French essayist Brillat-Savarin once wrote a famous aphorism: “Tell me what you eat, I shall tell you who you are.”  And according to American psychologist Abraham H. Maslow who proposed the hierarchy of needs, “A person who is lacking food, safety, love, and esteem would most probably hunger for food more strongly than for anything else.”

Food is something we consume every day, for enjoyment, sometimes for entertainment, and most importantly, for keeping body and soul together.  But can you recall the last time you were really, really hungry?  The time you joined World Visions’40 hours of famine?  Or when you decided to give the 168 intermittent fasting a go?  Living in an abundant country, we are the lucky ones who are able to put food on our table. And we can afford to help the less fortunate by donating to charities and running a Food Bank.  Let us also remember those who are facing food shortages and starvation as their countries are affected by war and other calamities, particularly people in western Africa, Sudan and Gaza. 

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus told his listeners, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” This passage records what happened the day after Jesus fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fish.  On the previous day, Jesus saw that a large crowd, who kept following him, were hungry.  And he satisfied their hunger. Then he went from their physical cravings to their spiritual needs.  He told them plainly that he was “the bread of life”, “the bread that came down from heaven.”

It is worth noting that in the Gospel of John, the meanings of subjects almost always start from the literal and then extend to the abstract.  In this case, Jesus started from caring for the people’s physical needs to attending to their spiritual needs, and from the food that perishes to the food that endures for eternal life. 

Jesus was telling his followers that he had fed that there were two kinds of hunger.  One was “literal”, a physical condition that required food to fill empty stomachs.  Then again, there was a second kind of hunger, an “abstract” one, that was about the inadequacies of life.

What then can we do to alleviate these incompleteness?  The recommendations in the epistle to the Ephesians we heard this morning provide very good reference. They also align with the requirements of the Mosaic Law. In sum, refrain from greed, bitterness, anger and slander, but treat each other with respect, kindness and forgiveness.  All these are good qualities that should be adopted – in fact they were part of God’s original intention when he first created us.  But when our hearts are not satisfied, when we feel that something is lacking or wanting, we find ourselves striving to search for that something, even if this means competing with others and, in so doing,  easily becoming filled with greed and bitterness.  We might even hurt others with our words and may be, our deeds. This is a serious problem we must face.

If that is the state we are in, I would say that although we might feel fully alive, I am afraid we are yet to live life to the full.  To solve this problem, we must return to the very source of life. That way, there is a possibility for our life to be changed and mature.  And the epistle reveals to us a starting point: “be imitators of God”. (Ephesians 5:1). But how do we do that?  After all, God is not someone you can see.  God is not someone you can feel with your hands.  How then can we imitate him? 

Let us not forget that God has given us the Holy Spirit.  And we are thankful for this.

Jesus promised his followers that, “the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.”(John 14:26)  According to the Prophet Isaiah, the Holy Spirit is “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” (Isaiah 11:2)  By this spirit, we shall be able to grow by and by.  Maturing bit by bit seems to be a general pattern of growth, applicable to both our physical body as well as our spirituality.

And as our spirituality develops in the guidance of the spirit, we will learn to experience God and understand his words more and more.  While the spirit dwells in our hearts and nurtures our growth, he also intercedes on our behalf with sighs too deep for words. (Romans 8:26) In this way, it is possible for our spiritual life to mature day by day, as we grow in God’s likeness.

Moreover, we have a role model in Jesus.  Recorded elsewhere in this gospel, Philip once asked Jesus, ”Lord, show us the Father” (John 14:8). And Jesus replied, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9) 

Jesus “came down from heaven; he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary, and was made human.”  (Nicene Creed)  He lived in history among human beings, so that he can be a life model for his followers and for us.  That’s why he said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:51) As we receive the Eucharistic bread and wine, may we draw strength from the one true vine, so that we may learn to be imitators of God. Amen.