In today's Gospel reading Jesus says “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.”
What does that mean?
Well it would be silly of me to tell you exactly what the Son of God was saying, so I will rather tell you the thoughts I have that I feel relate to this Gospel reading.
When the disciples followed Jesus across the water and asked Him how He arrived there, the previous was His response. I feel it means that we are striving for answers to the questions we have not because we know, but because we know not.
Why do we toil and work so hard in this life. We concern ourselves with the material possessions, the baseball game, the music concert we wish to see. But do we take enough time to consider the lasting work of the Lord.
We all make the extra time to do some work at our jobs, we can easily convince ourselves that it is for our families, or our career. But when we die, will God say to us, You did a good project at work so you may enter the Gates, or do you think He is more likely to say, Why did you not take more time to praise me or help your fellow man in my name.
Do we volunteer enough to help the sick or elderly? Do we give enough money to good viable charities or just to the ones that give us a tax break? Do you give the man on the side of the road a dollar to find food or do you just give him a sneer or a retort or do you just pass him by as if he wasn't their?
I think God expects more of us. I believe that when Jesus talked to His disciples at the water, he was telling them to seek more sustenance for their eternal souls and take less time for their worldly wants and desires.
I guess the question I ask myself all the time is, Is this my desire or God's will? Sometimes their is no way to find the true answer to the question, or times it is obvious that I am doing what I want with little regard to God. Is it enough to be Christian on Sunday or should we consider that we must be Christians everyday? I think we must strive to find God will in all things, whether it is at work or at play. I know God wants us to be happy, that is why He gave us the greatest gift, Jesus Christ and the Joy of the Truth.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Work for Food that Endures
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2 comments:
OOps I hit enter before I was finished.
You emailed me a while ago but my account accidently deleted your e-mail.
Anyway: You've got a pretty good site here and I'll have my wife, Puff, include your 'blog to our sidebar under "Catholic 'Blogs". Welcome to the Blogosphere.
My blog: The Spirit's Sword
Again welcome to the Blogosphere.
Hi,
Welcome to blogdom.
The saying about food in John 6 should be seen in relation to the end of the episode with the Samaritan woman; just before the towns-people reach our Lord:
In the meanwhile, the disciples urged him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
4:32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”
4:33 The disciples therefore said one to another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?”
4:34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.
The food He gives us is the very body he took to begin the accomplishing of His Father's will:
Therefore when he comes into the world, he says,
“Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire,
but you prepared a body for me;
10:6 You had no pleasure in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin.
10:7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of me)
to do your will, O God.’”*
10:8 Previously saying, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you didn’t desire, neither had pleasure in them” (those which are offered according to the law), 10:9 then he has said, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He takes away the first, that he may establish the second, 10:10 by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Heb 10:5-10)
Perhaps you may find this short post I did helpful:
http://thedivinelamp.stblogs.com/2007/05/28/some-notes-on-sacrament-of-charity-article-1/
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