John 6: 22-29
[After Jesus had fed the five thousand men, his disciples saw him walking on the sea.] The next day the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there. They also saw that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Nourished by Belief
“You are looking for me not because you saw signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.” “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”
On Holy Thursday, we traditionally sing Aquinas’ hymn “Pange, Lingua, Gloriosi” as we accompany the Blessed Sacrament to a chapel of repose. The hymn addresses some of the same themes that appear in today’s readings (John’s Gospel and Acts 6:8-15): fear about change of customs or ritual, and confusion or wonder when our physical senses don’t tell us the whole story. 1200 years after the events of the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, Eucharistic theology was a contentious topic! Jesus tells the people in today’s reading that the work of God is to believe in him, but Stephen, Aquinas, and all the saints who followed Jesus showed us that belief is not easy work, especially living it out. We can believe through desolation when we remember real experiences of nourishment. Why do you look for Jesus? When has your belief filled you, nourished you, left you with a radiant face like Stephen’s?
—Molly Mattingly is the Music Ministry Coordinator at Creighton University Campus Ministry and St. John’s Parish in Omaha.
Prayer
Therefore we, before him bending, this great sacrament revere:
Ancient forms have had their ending, for the newer rite is here;
Faith, our outward sense befriending, makes the inward vision clear.
—Pange, Lingua, Gloriosi vs. 5, translated by Edward Caswall