READING OF THE DAY First reading from the Book of Exodus Ex 16:2-4, 12-15
The whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “Would that we had died at the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!”
Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will now rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion; thus will I test them, to see whether they follow my instructions or not.
“I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them: In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread, so that you may know that I, the LORD, am your God.”
In the evening quail came up and covered the camp. In the morning a dew lay all about the camp, and when the dew evaporated, there on the surface of the desert were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground. On seeing it, the Israelites asked one another, “What is this?” for they did not know what it was. But Moses told them, “This is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.”
PSALM 78 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. 3 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,
24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
25 Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.
54 And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.
Second reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians Eph 4:17, 20-24
Brothers and sisters: I declare and testify in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds; that is not how you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard of him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus, that you should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY From the Gospel according to John Jn 6:24-35
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “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.” So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” So they said to him, “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
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.”
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER Jesus does not eliminate the concern and search for daily food. No, he does not remove the concern for all that can make life more progressive. But Jesus reminds us that the true meaning of our earthly existence lies at the end, in eternity, it lies in the encounter with Him, who is gift and giver. He also reminds us that human history with its suffering and joy must be seen in a horizon of eternity, that is, in that horizon of the definitive encounter with Him. (Angelus, 2 August 2015)
FAUSTI - Jesus is man, how can he be of divine origin? How come he calls God: "My Father" and promises men the life of God? How can a man become equal to God? It is the mystery of Jesus. He is flesh, like all of us. But it is the Word, become flesh, the Son of God who became Son of man, inevitable scandal so that every son of man becomes Son of God. Jesus reaffirms that accepting Him is a gift from the Father, his work par excellence. He draws every man to the Son so that he may become a son. This attraction of the Father, even if mysterious, is innate in man, precisely because he is his son: is expressed in the many requests for meaning that each one makes. We are all directly instructed by God, disciples of the inner voice that bears witness to the Word, the true light that enlightens every man. We are "theodidact". trained by God, He acts in the heart of every man, drawing him towards light and life, towards the Son in whom he gives himself to us as a Father. If before there was the law, written on boards of stone, now God Himself writes His Word in our hearts, putting in us a new heart, full of His love. Bread recalls the Word of God, the beginning of life. The true bread is Jesus, the Word become flesh. Manna is the food of Exodus. "Your fathers" ate of it, but did not reach the promised land (Ps 95:8); they failed on the way and did not obtain eternal life, because they did not listen to the Lord. Manna came from heaven, but only in the past; moreover, whoever ate it did not obtain life. The Bread of which Jesus speaks instead "descends" now from heaven, to the present, and whoever eats it, doesn't die. We pass from the Bread, which recalls the gift of manna, to the Flesh, which recalls the sacrifice of the Lamb. These are allusions to Exodus and Easter. The Bread that Jesus will give, when His hour has come, is His Flesh: His Body given for us. It is a foreboding of the Passion and its fruit. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, becoming, in his sacrifice, the source of life and blessing for all. The flesh of Jesus, his humanity offered on the cross as a total gift of love, is the Epiphany of that God that no one has ever seen. In him the Word has become Flesh so that the flesh itself becomes the Word, the account of God, the presence of His Spirit that animates the world.
D. FREDO With the episode of the sharing of the loaves Jesus had wanted to raise the crowd to the level first of men, then of mature people, but the crowd did not want to, they wanted to make Him king. They preferred submission rather than the freedom that Jesus had proposed to them and Jesus had run away. Well, now the crowd chases Him, goes in search of Him - the verb "to search" in John's Gospel is always negative, it is always to capture, stone, kill Jesus - and, when they find Him, they address Him calling Him "Rabbi". Rabbi is the teacher of the Law, they have not understood the novelty proposed by Jesus, a completely new relationship with God, no longer based on the obedience to the Law, but on the welcoming His love. And here begins a dialogue between the deaf, a dialogue marked by incomprehension, because the crowd asks for bread for itself and Jesus invited them to become bread for others. Here Jesus says "you seek me not because you have seen signs". What was the sign? The reception of a generous gift to become, in turn, a generous gift for others, receiving bread to then become bread for others. "But because you have eaten" - that is, you have taken bread for yourselves, "and you have been satisfied". And Jesus warns, "do not work for the food that does not last, but for the food that remains for eternal life." Life has a biological part that needs to be nourished and a part, the eternal part, that needs to be nourished in order to grow. So we have two aspects: - Our biological life, needs to be nourished The inner one, in order to grow, needs to nourish. So Jesus says, "get busy for this." "Because", Jesus assures them, "this is the food that the Son gives you and on Him the Father has put His seal", that is, Jesus is the guarantee of the divine presence in humanity. And here they ask Jesus what they should do, and Jesus says, "This is the work of God." The only time the term 'God's work' appears in the Old Testament is in the Book of Exodus, chapter 32, vers. 16, to refer to the tables of the Law. There is a change of covenant, the relationship with God is no longer based on the observance of the Law, but on the acceptance of Jesus' Love. And this is what Jesus expresses "that you believe in Him whom He has sent". Therefore, no longer the obedience to the laws, but the resemblance to the Love that in Jesus, guarantee of the divine presence, is manifested. But the crowd does not understand and asks: "what sign do you perform so that we may see and believe?" This is typical of religious experience: a sign to be seen in order to believe. And Jesus always refuses, Jesus does not show a sign to see in order to believe, but on the contrary says "believe, and you yourself will become a sign that others can see". Faced with this reaction of the crowd that refers to the fathers and not to the Father, that refers to the past and says "our fathers ate manna in the desert", they refer to the past for Israel, while Jesus had invited them to the present, to the Father of humanity, Jesus says that it was not Moses in the past who gave true life, but the Father "gives you bread from heaven, the true bread". The crowd's request recalls the prayer of the Lord's Prayer which, in John's gospel is not present, "Lord, give us always of this bread". Here, the crowd has grown from 'Rabbi' - Rabbi is the one who teaches the Law - to 'Lord', they have understood that in Jesus there is a divine reality. And here is Jesus' declaration "I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will not hunger, and whoever believes in me will not thirst." Jesus presents Himself as the full answer to the need for fullness of life that every man carries within himself.
READING OF THE DAY
RispondiEliminaFirst reading from the Book of Exodus
Ex 16:2-4, 12-15
The whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
The Israelites said to them,
“Would that we had died at the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt,
as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!
But you had to lead us into this desert
to make the whole community die of famine!”
Then the LORD said to Moses,
“I will now rain down bread from heaven for you.
Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion;
thus will I test them,
to see whether they follow my instructions or not.
“I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites.
Tell them: In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh,
and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread,
so that you may know that I, the LORD, am your God.”
In the evening quail came up and covered the camp.
In the morning a dew lay all about the camp,
and when the dew evaporated, there on the surface of the desert
were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground.
On seeing it, the Israelites asked one another, “What is this?”
for they did not know what it was.
But Moses told them,
“This is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.”
PSALM 78
Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
3 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,
24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
25 Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.
54 And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.
Second reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians
Eph 4:17, 20-24
Brothers and sisters:
I declare and testify in the Lord
that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do,
in the futility of their minds;
that is not how you learned Christ,
assuming that you have heard of him and were taught in him,
as truth is in Jesus,
that you should put away the old self of your former way of life,
corrupted through deceitful desires,
and be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
and put on the new self,
created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
RispondiEliminaFrom the Gospel according to John
Jn 6:24-35
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they themselves got into boats
and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
And when they found him across the sea they said to him,
“Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered them and said,
“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.”
So they said to him,
“What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”
Jesus answered and said to them,
“This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”
So they said to him,
“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?
What can you do?
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:
He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”
So Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.”
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.”
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
Jesus does not eliminate the concern and search for daily food. No, he does not remove the concern for all that can make life more progressive. But Jesus reminds us that the true meaning of our earthly existence lies at the end, in eternity, it lies in the encounter with Him, who is gift and giver. He also reminds us that human history with its suffering and joy must be seen in a horizon of eternity, that is, in that horizon of the definitive encounter with Him. (Angelus, 2 August 2015)
FAUSTI - Jesus is man, how can he be of divine origin? How come he calls God: "My Father" and promises men the life of God? How can a man become equal to God? It is the mystery of Jesus.
RispondiEliminaHe is flesh, like all of us.
But it is the Word, become flesh, the Son of God who became Son of man, inevitable scandal so that every son of man becomes Son of God. Jesus reaffirms that accepting Him is a gift from the Father, his work par excellence.
He draws every man to the Son so that he may become a son.
This attraction of the Father, even if mysterious, is innate in man, precisely because he is his son:
is expressed in the many requests for meaning that each one makes. We are all directly instructed by God, disciples of the inner voice that bears witness to the Word, the true light that enlightens every man.
We are "theodidact". trained by God, He acts in the heart of every man, drawing him towards light and life, towards the Son in whom he gives himself to us as a Father.
If before there was the law, written on boards of stone, now God Himself writes His Word in our hearts, putting in us a new heart, full of His love.
Bread recalls the Word of God, the beginning of life.
The true bread is Jesus, the Word become flesh.
Manna is the food of Exodus. "Your fathers" ate of it, but did not reach the promised land (Ps 95:8); they failed on the way and did not obtain eternal life, because they did not listen to the Lord.
Manna came from heaven, but only in the past; moreover, whoever ate it did not obtain life.
The Bread of which Jesus speaks instead "descends" now from heaven, to the present, and whoever eats it,
doesn't die. We pass from the Bread, which recalls the gift of manna, to the Flesh, which recalls the sacrifice of the Lamb. These are allusions to Exodus and Easter.
The Bread that Jesus will give, when His hour has come, is His Flesh: His Body given for us.
It is a foreboding of the Passion and its fruit.
Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, becoming, in his sacrifice, the source of life and blessing for all.
The flesh of Jesus, his humanity offered on the cross as a total gift of love, is
the Epiphany of that God that no one has ever seen.
In him the Word has become Flesh so that the flesh itself becomes the Word, the account of God, the presence of His Spirit that animates the
world.
D. FREDO With the episode of the sharing of the loaves Jesus had wanted to raise the crowd to the level first of men, then of mature people, but the crowd did not want to, they wanted to make Him king. They preferred submission rather than the freedom that Jesus had proposed to them and Jesus had run away.
RispondiEliminaWell, now the crowd chases Him, goes in search of Him - the verb "to search" in John's Gospel is always negative, it is always to capture, stone, kill Jesus - and, when they find Him, they address Him calling Him "Rabbi". Rabbi is the teacher of the Law, they have not understood the novelty proposed by Jesus, a completely new relationship with God, no longer based on the obedience to the Law, but on the welcoming His love. And here begins a dialogue between the deaf, a dialogue marked by incomprehension, because the crowd asks for bread for itself and Jesus invited them to become bread for others. Here Jesus says "you seek me not because you have seen signs". What was the sign? The reception of a generous gift to become, in turn, a generous gift for others, receiving bread to then become bread for others.
"But because you have eaten" - that is, you have taken bread for yourselves, "and you have been satisfied".
And Jesus warns, "do not work for the food that does not last, but for the food that remains for eternal life." Life has a biological part that needs to be nourished and a part, the eternal part, that needs to be nourished in order to grow. So we have two aspects:
- Our biological life, needs to be nourished The inner one, in order to grow, needs to nourish.
So Jesus says, "get busy for this." "Because", Jesus assures them, "this is the food that the Son gives you and on Him the Father has put His seal", that is, Jesus is the guarantee of the divine presence in humanity.
And here they ask Jesus what they should do, and Jesus says, "This is the work of God." The only time the term 'God's work' appears in the Old Testament is in the Book of Exodus, chapter 32, vers. 16, to refer to the tables of the Law. There is a change of covenant, the relationship with God is no longer based on the observance of the Law, but on the acceptance of Jesus' Love. And this is what Jesus expresses "that you believe in Him whom He has sent". Therefore, no longer the obedience to the laws, but the resemblance to the Love that in Jesus, guarantee of the divine presence, is manifested.
But the crowd does not understand and asks: "what sign do you perform so that we may see and believe?" This is typical of religious experience: a sign to be seen in order to believe. And Jesus always refuses, Jesus does not show a sign to see in order to believe, but on the contrary says "believe, and you yourself will become a sign that others can see".
Faced with this reaction of the crowd that refers to the fathers and not to the Father, that refers to the past and says "our fathers ate manna in the desert", they refer to the past for Israel, while Jesus had invited them to the present, to the Father of humanity, Jesus says that it was not Moses in the past who gave true life, but the Father "gives you bread from heaven, the true bread".
The crowd's request recalls the prayer of the Lord's Prayer which, in John's gospel is not present, "Lord, give us always of this bread". Here, the crowd has grown from 'Rabbi' - Rabbi is the one who teaches the Law - to 'Lord', they have understood that in Jesus there is a divine reality.
And here is Jesus' declaration "I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will not hunger, and whoever believes in me will not thirst." Jesus presents Himself as the full answer to the need for fullness of life that every man carries within himself.