Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection August 04, 2024
Eighteenth Week of Ordinary Time
04th August 2024 (Sunday)
Psalter: Week 2
Reading of the Day
First Reading: Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15
In those days: The whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’” In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.”
Psalm 78:3 and 4bc, 23-24, 25 and 54 (R. 24b)
R/. The Lord gave them bread from heaven
Second Reading: Ephesians 4:17, 20-24
Brethren: This I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. But that is not the way you learned Christ! – assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Gospel Acclamation
V/. Alleluia
R/. Alleluia
V/. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God
R/. Alleluia.
Gospel : John 6:24-35
At that time: When the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking 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 to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
Daily Gospel Reflection
Sunday – Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Guidelines: Quicker gains, shallow pleasures can be very gratifying, but they are short-lived and passing. At the end, they will create more dissatisfaction
1. In the gospel passage, John 6. 24-35, people are searching for Jesus. In fact, it is a matter of feeling great. One must feel proud that they are sought, that others recognize their worth and need.
2. If we were in the place of Jesus, surely we will be excited that we are able to pull crowds to ourselves. What a sense of pride we may feel that we are mass appealers!
3. But Jesus is a contrast! He is not carried away by the numbers. He is not interested about his popularity. The concern is not to bolster his ego. Rather, his total orientation is people’s growth.
4. Jesus wants to draw their attention from the peripheral and superficial toward the profound and eternal, from the physical and material toward the spiritual, from the perishable toward the imperishable, from the temporary to the everlasting.
5. Accordingly, Jesus unearths their motive in seeking him. Are they seeking him because they were fed and had their fill? Is the memory of the multiplication of the loaves and fish still fresh in their memories?
6. Accordingly he directly questions them, why are you searching for me? He knows that they are more concentrating on the power of him and not on the effect on them.He also reproaches them for their shallow pursuit of merely the material and physical: do not search for what is perishable.
7. Two questions and pointers can help us. What are we searching? Why are we searching? What are we searching? implies the object or the target of our search. Why are we searching refers to the motive of our search. The people were searching for food. They were searching so as to satisfy their hunger.
8. These two questions also help us for a true self- check and self- discovery. A honest reflection will reveal to us that many search mostly what pertains to the world and earthly life.
9. It includes money, possessions, comforts, sex, power, position, intelligence and competence, talent and skill, prestige, privilege, name, popularity, success, achievements, etc. Most of the time, energies, capacities, resources is consumed to acquire these elements.
10. And why do they search for these things? The simplest reason is satisfaction and happiness. People make themselves satisfied and happy by these things.
11. To make it more clear, these things are sought, because people believe they give physical gratification and pleasure, material satisfaction, psychological and emotional relief, relaxation and comfort, intellectual efficiency and calibre, social recognition and status, a sense of dignity and importance, etc.
12. But the truth is, nothing of these can give us lasting happiness and deep satisfaction. They can give only a temporary pleasure and a peripheral satisfaction. Why they cannot give is, it is their nature of limitation.
13. They are temporary and temporal. How can a temporary and temporal thing give an eternal joy? On the other hand, man has an unrestricted desire to know and an insatiable thirst to be happy. And so, what is restricted cannot satisfy the unrestricted.
14. The sadness and foolishness of many is: they do not realize the nature and capacity of these worldly things. They are shallow and transient. Further, what is lasting and imperishable is neglected because of what is temporary and perishable.
15. The Jews were fondly recalling the manna in the desert. Certainly, it was food from heaven, gifted to satisfy their hunger. However, it was a temporary satisfaction and perishable.
16. But now, here is Jesus, the Bread of life that is imperishable. Those who ate manna died but those who receive Jesus, will live forever. Only he can give the eternal joy and fulfilment, and he gives it in abundance.
17. In the light of the second reading, Ephesians 4. 20-24, the greatest sign and effect of seeking the eternal bread of life is a deep renewal of life. One who is oriented to eternity and the spiritual, puts off the old self of sin and puts on the new self of grace and righteousness
Practice: Those who seek the perishable and neglect the imperishable are like those who run after false brooks, and abandon the deep and perpetual spring.
