We are all part of the world and environment that we live in. That is something that we know without having to put too much thought or reflection into it. What we have to stop and ponder, what we have to reach out in prayer about is what comes as a part of being the world, of being part of the environment that we are in which includes the community, situation even the predicaments of our lives – is what we might refer to as the spiritual realm that we are also a part of. If we are focused only on the temporal realm (the world we can see and experience) and we never or rarely focus on the spiritual realm; the realm our souls are more a part of – we never see beyond what this world is for us. In the readings today there is a focus on the beyond the Lord our God wants us to see. In the Word, God speaks to us today through our stomachs. There is a cliché that suggests “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” which has a very different meaning than what the Lord wants us to consider today, but it’s appropriate to capture the point. If we are full and we know that food gives us life, then we are ready to consider what’s next. The People of Israel are given food by God so that they can move onto what is next, listening, hearing, encountering, experiencing what God wants them to experience as a believing and faithful people. And this is what Jesus, the Bread of Life wants for us, this is what is Proclaimed in our Hearing at Holy Mass today. Are we ready? Our lives will improve and we will grow exponentially when we pray and desire to enter the next realm, the realm of God, the spiritual realm. Jesus is the Bread of Life, and today and every day, each one of us needs to consider how and why we need this nourishment, and we can be assured that if we are convinced that Jesus is the Bread of Life and is the only One who can give us this nourishment, we too know that we need this Living Bread every day, just as we need the food our bodies tell us to; our souls will begin to tell us we need the Bread of Life too.
Father Lemieux 