18TH SUNDAY HOMILY OF ORDINARY TIME – YEAR B

18TH SUNDAY HOMILY OF ORDINARY TIME – YEAR B

HOMILY THEME: ANOTHER KIND OF FOOD

BY: Bishop Gerald M. Musa

Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15; Ephesians 4:17, 20-24; John 6:24-35

There was a nationwide protest in Nigeria and it was an expression of anger and grievances of the multitude of people who suffer from hunger and economic hardship due to bad governance, greed, and ineffective policies. The crowd consisting mostly of youth and social activists marched on strategic streets chanting: “We’re hungry, don’t kill us, enough of hunger and hardship, anti-poor policies, end hardship now!” “‘We are hungry – even the police are hungry, the army are hungry,” said factory worker Jite Omoze, 38. ‘I have two children and a wife but I can’t feed them anymore,’ he added, calling for the government to reduce fuel prices.” Hunger is at the centre of the protest and the high cost of food is the problem.

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What can we do without food and nutrition? We need daily food for survival and that explains why we ask God in prayer to give us our daily bread. A professor of theology has a short beautiful prayer, which he says at meals. He says, “Lord, I thank you for food: food for the body and food for the soul: may we never lack for either and give us an appetite for both!”

We are always hungry and working hard to satisfy our hunger. We work day and night, spending time and expending energy as we struggle to place food on the table, and to eat well. We all have a physiological need to eat food and to avoid any unpleasant experience of hunger. Therefore, we spend more time working to satisfy the different forms of human hunger – for food, wealth, knowledge, power, sex, comfort and all the material things the world can offer. No wonder George Bernard Shaw says, “There is no sincerer love than the love of food.”

The people of Israel experienced physical hunger in their long journey from the land of captivity to the Promised Land and in their hunger, they expressed deep anger against Moses. There was a delay in the supply of food, perhaps for just one day and they began to complain and murmur vehemently against Moses and by extension, against God. As if this was not enough, they also began to glorify the past days of slavery and they spoke with nostalgia about the fleshpots of meat, which the Egyptians served them. Their memory was too short to remember that in the days of slavery, they could not sing the Lord’s song and were deeply sad in those days because they lacked freedom and fulfilment. In their anger, they forgot the two ultimate reasons for their journey:

1. To establish an intimate relationship with God
2. To go to a land and an environment where they will be free to worship God, freed from fear and saved from the prying eyes of their foes.

Afterwards, the Lord listened to all their complaints and provided them with an abundance of special diet of manna and quails.

Many years after the exodus experience, Jesus came to live and preach to the people of Israel. Jesus was sensitive to their physical hunger and so he multiplied bread and fish for them to eat. The people enjoyed the physical bread he provided so they began to follow Him, not so much for his teaching but for the bread they could eat. Jesus was smart to notice that his followers saw Him as the leader of a charitable organization that provides food aid and so he quickly corrected this wrong impression. He did not want to be reduced to a magician, a mere wonder-worker, but as one who nourishes and refreshes the soul. This explains why He spoke to his followers about extraordinary bread – Panis Angelicus (Bread of Angels) that gives eternal life and is greater than the manna their ancestors ate in the desert.

Jesus read the hearts of his listeners and advised them not to crave for the bread that will perish but for that which endures forever. Surprisingly, they too had short memories like their ancestors and began to ask Jesus to show them a sign to believe in Him after they had just been fed with bread. You can imagine how they put their hands in their pockets and proudly asked Him, “What sign will you give to show us that we should believe in you?” “What work will you do?” Jesus saw these questions not just as a challenge but as an opportunity to speak to them about a different kind of Manna (food), which has the power to give eternal life. He responded: “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. The bread God gives is the One who comes from heaven and gives life to the world.” The people having realised they need something more than physical bread, quickly requested: “Give us this bread always” (John 6:32-34).

Thereafter, Jesus made a definitive statement: “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall never be hungry, and he who believes in me shall never be thirsty” (John 6:35). By these words, Jesus meant to offer Himself and his life to those who believe in Him. He demonstrated this act of self-giving on the day of the Last Supper when He took the bread and said to his disciples, ‘Take and eat, this is my body’ and when he gave them the wine and said, ‘Take and eat, this is my blood.’ Psalm 77 (78) tells us that we are lucky to share in the bread of angels (Panis Angelicus), which God offers to us. It is this bread that gives peace and joy, which the world cannot give to us. It is a kind of bread that sustains eternally. The spiritual hunger that Jesus talks about is the yearning of the spirit in each person to have a deeper union and intimacy with God. It is the hunger for truth, righteousness, love, peace, and holiness and only the bread he offers can satisfy this inner and deep hunger. The bread that satisfies this hunger is Communion and intimacy with God. A Ghanaian proverb says, “The grasshopper which is always near its mother eats the best food.” Therefore, those who enjoy communion with God enjoy the best food.

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