Seeking him for the right reasons!

Scripture has it that the whole community of the sons of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, asking, ‘Why did we not die at the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we were able to sit down to pans of meat and could eat bread to our heart’s content’ (cf. Ex16:2-4). This same tendency of wanting to ‘eat bread to our heart’s content’, is noticed in the action of the people who having had enough bread to eat because the Lord had multiplied and fed the five thousand with it, started searching for him, with the wrong intention of having more bread to eat. The Lord called them out. He told them straight to their faces, ‘I tell you most solemnly, you are not looking for me because you have seen the signs but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat. Do not work for food that cannot last, but work for the food that endures to eternal life, the kind of food the Son of Man is offering you…’(Jn 6:24-35). This way of living to eat is aptly described by St. Paul, as an aimless kind of life. He says, ‘I want to urge you in the name of the Lord, not to go on living the aimless kind of life that pagans live…your mind must be renewed by a spiritual revolution…’ (cf. Eph 4:17. 20-24).

Beloved People of God, we must search and seek the Lord for the right reasons. We follow him with the right disposition and intention. He is God. He sees through us. He knows the ones who truly and wholeheartedly love and worship him.

May we all continue to work for food that endures to eternal life, working for God, by ‘believing in the one he has sent’ (Jn 6:29). May we never lose sight of the right reasons for seeking after Christ.

All to Jesus – Through Mary our Mother 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
4th August 2024