Our desire...for the bread that lasts

Today's reading is from St. John's gospel, beginning at the first verse of the sixth chapter.

The Daily Office readings are about to repeat most of what we’ve been reading every Sunday this summer: bread, bread, bread! 

Last Sunday at the Epiphany Father Pitt preached, following four weeks of my preaching on Ephesians, which meant that we finally, thanks to Louis, heard a sermon on the gospel’s weeks-long emphasis on bread. Of course it was an excellent sermon, and at its end Louis asked us, “when you pray ‘give us this day our daily bread’ what are you praying for? What bread?” 

I think God cares about our answer, about our hunger, about our desire. That for which we’re longing and hoping...God cares about it. This story of the feeding of the 5,000 is told in all four gospels. There’s something about our hunger, our desire, that’s key to Christian discipleship. And, that’s what I think Louis was saying on Sunday. The way St. John tells this story--with important differences from the other versions--Jesus is the one who can end hunger. In this story, Jesus is the host; he distributes the food.

Because in St. John’s teaching it's Jesus himself who will become the real food; Jesus who will say to us just a few verses later, "I am the bread of life. Those who come to me will never hunger." Jesus is saying, "I am the real food. The most important food. Don't spend your lives on food that spoils, or stock the cupboards with things that will perish. Make me the staple, because it’s food that will last.” Jesus is ready, right now and always, to fill us with his love, with his call toward justice and right relationship, and with his peace. 

Let us pray.

O Lord, our Father, which art in heaven, grant unto us thy grace; as the children of thy kingdom, that we labor not only for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life. Give us the true bread from heaven, even the flesh of thy dear Son, for he is our spiritual food and sustenance, without which we can have no life in us. 

(The prayer is from Fr. Richard Meux Benson, 1824-1915, the founder of the Society of St. John the Evangelist)