Sunday, Aug. 4, is the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Mass readings: Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15; Psalm 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54; Ephesians 4:17, 20-24; John 6:24-35.

In the first reading, the Israelites in the desert are hungry, as are the people by the lakeside with Jesus in the Gospel reading; and in the epistle, St. Paul warns of deceitful desires. In all of these passages, God teaches us that our desires should ultimately be directed to him, who alone can truly satisfy us. 

Let’s look at what the Lord teaches by focusing on the Gospel, but also including insights from the other readings. 

The Gospel begins where last Sunday’s left off. (Jesus had multiplied the loaves and fishes and satisfied the crowd with abundant food but then slipped away and headed across the lake to Capernaum.) This Sunday’s Gospel begins, “When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.” We may experience some temporary satisfaction, especially with things like food, but it doesn’t last long. Taken together, our desires should ultimately seek the eternal — a lesson Jesus teaches the crowd once they find him.

As already noted, desire is good and God-given, but due to our fallen condition, our desires are often unruly, and our darkened minds often misinterpret what our desire is really telling us. Desires are unruly because we desire many things out of proportion to what we need, and to what is right and good. The text says, “And when they found him across the sea they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you get here?’” They know exactly when he got there; they are simply trying to strike up a conversation in order to get more bread. As we shall see, Jesus calls them on it. 

Note this much, however: They are looking for Jesus, and they do call him “Rabbi.” Their desire, though imperfectly experienced, has brought them to Jesus, who can now teach them about what their longing is really telling them.

“So they said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’ Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.’” The Lord now makes it plain: “I am your food. I am the fulfillment of all your desires. I am the only one who can fulfill your infinite longings, for I am the Lord and I am infinite. Yes, I am your true bread.”

What does the Lord mean in saying we will never again hunger or thirst? 

To some extent, we must understand that Jesus is employing an ancient Jewish way of speaking, which looks to the end of things and adopts them as now fully present.

In short, it is the capacity to see things as “already but not yet” and to begin to live out of the “already” while in the here and now — always drawing closer to the Bread of Life.