"I MYSELF am the bread of life. No one who comes to me shall
ever be hungry, no one who believes in me shall thirst again.”
(Jn 6,35)
We need to enliven our belief
that in Christ we have everything,
we have what is truly and
ultimately needed by us. Many
of our needs are passing, are of
a temporal nature. It is Christ who
we truly and ultimately need.
And he gives himself so
completely to us as to make
himself bread to be eaten by
us. Although he is like air
since we can not truly live
without him, he compares and
makes himself bread, because
unlike air, he as bread has to
be deliberately sought.
This duty of seeking him is
what we have to be more aware
of. In the Gospel itself, we hear
our Lord saying, “Seek first his
kingdom and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be yours
as well.” (Mt 6,33)
We have to learn to
subordinate our earthly and
temporal concerns and plans to the
task of seeking Christ. We have to
be wary of being influenced mainly,
if not solely, by the standards of
practicality, convenience and other
worldly values. That’s our problem.
God is often left behind in the play
of our competing interests.
As our Lord said: “What will it profit
a man if he gains the whole world and
forfeits his life?” (Mt 16,26) We should
not lose the spiritual and supernatural
character of our life, and do everything
to keep ourselves from being dominated
by a purely worldly and temporal outlook
in life.
We need to seek Christ and be
close to him always. This intimacy is
what we have to build up and
maintain. Thus, we have to learn to
make seeking Christ a permanent
attitude and disposition in our life.
Whatever we may be doing,
whatever situation we may find ourselves in, let us always seek
Christ.
Our Lord himself tells us to seek
him with insistence. “Ask, and it will be
given you; seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you…”
(Lk 11,9) We have to understand that to
lead a truly upright and moral life, we
need to be existentially close with Christ.
And Christ is actually very
close to us. He is actually very
accessible to us. He does not play
hard to get. He is at the very core of
our being, because he is the main
cause of our existence. Besides, his
overpowering love for us makes him
truly close to us. It’s us rather who
tend to ignore him.
We have to understand that our
moral life does not depend so much on
our knowledge of moral principles as on
our living relationship with God. It’s this
intimate relationship with God that would
effectively guide us as to how to think,
speak and act. It’s this relationship that
would enable us to live charity all the
time in spite of difficulties.
This intimacy is attained
when we develop this Eucharistic
mind frame, that abiding belief based
on Christ’s teaching, that in the
Eucharist we have the real presence
of Christ and, in fact, the very bread
of life, the bread that gives us the
true, ultimate life, and not just
biological, physical and material life.
We need to bolster our Eucharistic
devotion. Do we, for example, go deep
into the study and knowledge of the
doctrine about the Eucharist, allowing
its truth to sink deep into our
consciousness and to bear fruit of many
practical expressions?
Do we have a longing for
the Holy Mass, a yearning to receive
our Lord in Communion? Do we
believe in the real presence of Christ
in the Blessed Sacrament, and
because of that, are we eager to visit
him in the Blessed Sacrament,
bringing all our thoughts and
desires to him?
When we pass by a church
where we know the Blessed Sacrament
is kept, do we spontaneously feel
something special, like at least greeting
our Lord from a distance, and telling him
things, including pouring out our
concerns? Do we feel good just to be in
front of the Blessed Sacrament?
We actually need to ask,
even to beg, for grace for us to be
able to have this attitude toward the
Eucharist in its various forms of
presence (Blessed Sacrament),
sacrifice (Holy Mass) and food
(Communion). Let’s pray for one
another for this purpose. But let’s
also do our part.
We should never waste what
our Lord is giving us—and that is he
himself.
"I MYSELF am the bread of life. No one who comes to me shall
ever be hungry, no one who believes in me shall thirst again.”
(Jn 6,35)