Hungry?

“Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty…Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away.’” John 6:35,37

Our lectionary readings for the month of August take us into John’s Gospel, into a series of meditations on “Jesus as the bread of life.” Jesus miraculously feeds the crowd of five thousand, and then begins to interpret this miracle in Eucharistic terms. While the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke place Jesus’ words of institution for Holy Communion at the Last Supper, John’s Gospel places them here, following the miraculous feeding of the crowds. (By contrast, John’s account of the Last Supper in John 13 includes the washing of the disciples’ feet.) Following the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus refers to himself as the “bread of life” who will satisfy us at our point of deepest need.

This series of readings begins with crowds thronging to Jesus because he fed them. It ends with the crowd becoming disgusted with Jesus’ words, “those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” The crowds were glad to receive that which satisfied their physical needs. When Jesus offered himself to those same crowds to satisfy them at their point of deepest need, they turned away.

How about us? We, too, have spiritual needs and yearnings that go far beyond the physical requirements of getting through each day. A prayer of St. Augustine went thus: “O God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.” Each of us has a “God-shaped hole” in our being, which we sometimes try to fill with financial security, possessions, careers, relationships. These can bring fleeting satisfaction, but like the proverbial Chinese dinner that leaves us hungry an hour later, ultimately the emptiness remains, unless we turn to Jesus and feed on the bread of life.

The words of an old hymn can be a prayer for us in these days:
Guide me, O thou great Jehovah / Pilgrim through this barren land.
I am weak, but thou art mighty / Hold me with thy powerful hand.
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more.
Feed me till I want no more.