From Theory to Practice

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" (John 6:34-35).

A reflection from Father Tudgay for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

For several weeks now, Saint Matthew’s Gospel has taken us through a series of parables about the nature of the Kingdom of God. “The Kingdom of God is like” … and then Christ usually uses agricultural imagery to describe the actions of God’s grace at work within the human heart. The agricultural imagery is then always taken further, illustrating the interpersonal fruitfulness that is accomplished when we respond to what God’s grace is doing in us. The agricultural parables are commonly used in both testaments of the Scriptures, but the New Testament is particularly rich with these images. In John’s Gospel, Jesus uses the image of the vine and branches to describe the interwoven nature of the Church in heaven and on Earth. These images capture the ubiquity of God’s presence in those who choose to follow him and for those who have yet to hear the Good News of salvation and life in Christ.

This weekend, the agricultural images and the musings about The Kingdom stop. Abruptly. Suddenly. In short, things get real this weekend. Imagery ceases. Teachings move from instruction to action. The miracle of the feeding of the five thousand is familiar to us. What preceded the miracle, however, is something ominous that frames the entire miracle: The death of John the Baptist. John, Christ’s distant cousin and forerunner, precedes him throughout their Earthly lives. 

John’s death clearly impacts Christ on multiple levels. First, it illustrates the conclusion of the former Covenant, the Law, and the Prophets. In the most significant moments in the Gospels, Jesus always goes off by himself. His realization in John’s death is that all of salvation for the human race is now in his hands. The salvation of the entire human race rests entirely in Christ’s obedience to the Father. Jesus connects the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand to the symbolism of John’s death: what awaits Christ in the unfolding of his Paschal Mystery is what will nourish us for eternity.

From this point forward, Saint Matthew’s Gospel focuses on the activity of Jesus as he makes his way toward Jerusalem. The miracles that he performs are accompanied by teachings that are less poetic and allegorical, as was the case in the weeks that preceded this Sunday. The tone and tenor will change into a more intense prediction of his actions ahead. His prediction about when and how and by whom he will be handed over draw on the ominous nature of John’s death. In short, Christ’s actions tie everything together, the new and the old, into the one salvific act. 

Our invitation during these weeks is to pay close attention to the relationship between Christ’s words and action in the Gospels and the way that they pertain to us. Our salvation and our peace always and everywhere is in Christ’s hands, who always chooses to feed us with what is needed for eternal life.