WEEKLY REFLECTION 

In the gospel, Jesus read the mind of the people following him. He performed the miracle of multiplication of bread and fish out of necessity. However, these followers have become carried away only by the material things and the signs they are going to get from Christ. So, rather than first accepting Christ and the word of God he preached, they have allowed physical hunger to overshadow their spiritual hunger. They were looking for physical bread but failed to recognize Christ – the spiritual bread of life present with them. 

One important lesson our attention to material things, we might fail to pay attention to the spiritual ones or might even forget the goodness of God in the past. So, rather than counting our blessings we might end up counting our woes and blaming God for our misfortunes. Our relationship with God must not be based alone on how much material things he is able to provide for us. 

Rather, we must be led by the spirit and allow him to renew our minds. When this happens, then we have a better relationship with Him. Unfortunately, often times we repeat what the Israelites did by murmuring against God. “God is good” only when thing are going on well. However, when we are faced with difficulties, we forget all his goodness and castigate him. Imagine the Israelites regretting being delivered from Egypt because they were hungry. Imagine them preferring slavery to freedom, simply because they were hungry. What they did was similar to what Esau did when he was hungry, by selling his birth right for a plate of porridge (Genesis 23, 29-34). 

The Gospel teaches us that Christ is the bread from heaven and is present in the Holy Eucharist. So each time we receive him both physically and spiritually, we receive more life and satisfaction.  He is the one who feeds and strengthens us on our journey in this world, as God strengthened the Israelites in the desert when, “He gave them bread from heaven." 

Reflections courtesy of Evengeli.net.