SEEING THE SACRAMENT AND BELIEVING THE REALITY


WEDNESDAY, Third Week of Eastertide

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke,OP

Acts 8:1-8; Ps 66:1-7; Jn 6:35-40

Seeing the Sacrament and Believing the Reality

The Lord used the miracle of bread and fish to attract the people to himself so that he may teach them. On the other hand, the desire for material food moved the people to seek Jesus. Those who are moved by their desire for physical food are moved carnally. They came in search of more bread and fish from the Son of Man. But Jesus presented something better for them to eat. He gave them spiritual food and drink to eat and live a spiritual life. But they could not eat the spiritual food and drink because they were not spiritually alive. To eat the spiritual food, we must be spiritually alive. To be spiritually alive, we must encounter the Son of God. But they cannot connect to the Son of God through the Son of Man given to their physical eyes without faith. They cannot have faith if they are not open to receiving it from God, who freely gives it to all who desire it. These deductions explain the words of Jesus Christ to those who came to eat more bread. “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never be hungry; he who believes in me will never thirst. But, as I have told you, you can see me and still do not believe.” They could see him with their carnal eyes because he is the Son of Man. But they did not believe in what they could not see, namely, the Son of God, because they refused to cooperate with God, who gives faith and spiritual life. We can see the Sacrament with our physical eyes, but only the one who has spiritual life through faith sees the reality of the Son of God. The reality gives and nourishes the spiritual life of the adopted children.

Our Lord teaches that the Father sends all who come to him, and he receives them as gifts from his Father. The Father is the giver of these gifts. He gives us the gift of faith in his word. By the gift of faith, the Father brings to spiritual life those who believe in the Son of God. The gift of life is to be lived by the one who received it. The receiver must exercise the gift of faith to own it, for a heavenly operation must be cooperated by the receiver. Those the Father gives to the Son of Man must also come to the Son of God. God achieves the first in us, and the second is what we achieve for ourselves by the exercise of faith in the Son of God. “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I shall not turn him away; because I have come from heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of the one who sent me.” It is in believing that we have and live a spiritual life. The persecution that came to the faith community of the disciples at the death of Stephen is but a sacrament of the will of God. They understood this and continued their exercise of faith and spiritual life. They dispersed far and wide, understanding the persecution as God’s means of spreading his Gospel to different parts of the region. There is a time to gather and a time to scatter what is gathered. It is God who determines the time for everything under the sun. “Those who had escaped went from place to place preaching the Good News. One of them was Philip who went to Samaritan town and proclaimed the Christ to them.” It is still the Father who brings people to Jesus Christ. What we see and what we believe in our situation connects or disconnects us from the life of the Father.

Let us pray:  Grant us, Lord, the grace to move from the sacramental sign by which you draw us to your Son, to faith in the Risen Lord who bring us to eternal life in you. 

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