Jesus satisfies our hunger and thirst

• This weekend the Church celebrates the Body and Blood of Christ. In the gospel we see Jesus preaching about the Kingdom of God, healing those in need, and offering food to the multitudes.
• It was evening and everyone was tired and hungry. Logically, the disciples ask that Jesus send everyone home. But he has other plans. After all, if they came all this way to be nourished by his Word, how could he send them away hungry?
• Jesus is going to give them bread that will satisfy the hunger of their body and soul—the same Eucharistic bread we will soon receive in Communion: Jesus himself—Body, Blood, Soul, Divinity.

Jesus needs our help

• But, Jesus isn’t going to handle this on his own; he wants us to have a part in the miracle. That’s why he notices the boy with the five loaves and two fish.
• Jesus needs us to bring what little we have so he can multiply it. How often do we ask God to listen to our needs, but we don’t do our part by living our Christian commitments! Even more so, how often do we want the miracles of God, while forgetting about the God of miracles!

Look for Me for my own sake!”

• The five thousand ate until they were full, and there were twelve baskets still left over, but not everyone saw the significance of spiritual bread in those physical loaves. They got caught up in the gift and forgot about the giver; they didn’t realize that the giver was even better than the gift, or rather that the real gift was the giver himself.
• Saint Augustine writes: “You look for me for earthly reasons, not for spiritual things. You look for me for all the wrong reasons—look for Me for my own sake!”

Work for the food that last forever

• In todays celebration of the Holy Eucharist, to eat means to believe in Him. Today, Jesus invites us to rise up to a higher, spiritual level.
• We are workers struggling for our daily sustenance; the problem of bread is as important to us as the problem of water was to the Samaritan woman. Jesus invites us to work not for the food that will perish, but for the food that remains unto eternal life.

Whoever eats this bread will live!

• For us to live the Eucharistic mystery, which is the foundation of our spiritual life, we need to grow in our faith. The five thousand in the Gospel today were only looking to have their physical hunger satisfied.
• May the daily concern of finding bread for our children not make us forget about Sunday Mass where we receive Jesus, the living bread come down from Heaven. He is bread, He is light, He is the shepherd. “The one who eats this bread will live forever,” says the Lord.