Man does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. MT 4:4
EXODUS 16:2-4,12-15
My Soul's Beloved,
When they saw this, the sons of Israel said to one another, ‘What is that?’ not knowing what it was. ‘That,’ said Moses to them, ‘is the bread the Lord gives you to eat.’ The Holy Eucharist is the Bread that becomes Your Flesh given to those who are grafted into Your Body in Baptism, to eat and become one with You, the Father, and the Holy Spirit and one with the whole community in the Church.
From the first words in Genesis to the last word in Revelation O Lord, my God, we are shown the Face of God, the love of God, the power of God, and the unsurpassable greatness of God who so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
Every single event in the Old Testament foreshadows all that God assures His people He will do by fulfilling, and completing every promise, every Covenant, and every prophesy to perfection in You, O Lord, in the New Testament. All who desire to belong to God by believing in You, His only Son, are now God's family in the New Covenant a Covenant sealed in Your Blood and in the Holy Spirit.
PSALM 77(78):3-4,23-25,54
EPHESIANS 4:17,20-24
The things we have heard and understood,
the things our fathers have told us,
we will tell to the next generation:
the glories of the Lord and his might.
He commanded the clouds above
and opened the gates of heaven.
He rained down manna for their food,
and gave them bread from heaven.
Mere men ate the bread of angels.
He sent them abundance of food;
So he brought them to his holy land,
to the mountain which his right hand had won.
The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
My Soul's Beloved,
Our tragedy O Lord in recent times is that the Church and her people are our ignorance, our apathy, our indifference, and above all our stubbornness, hardness of heart, and pride that have permitted her to drift rudderless into a deep, dark, ominous ocean where wickedness is drawing her into dangerous currents that can at any time swallow her up like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah and the people at the time of Noah.
What will it take O Lord, to shake us out of our stupor and topor Lord? Will You have to annihilate a third of us before we wake up? And will the Holy Spirit begin anew with a faithful remnant? Catholics are living like pagans and who is to blame Lord - the Church, the Bishops and priests, the teachers in the Church, parents, the elders? Who do we blame Lord? Each of us is responsible for the immortal soul given to us and we are called to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Soon it will be too late and we will all perish if we do not wake up from our slumber.
For the sake of Your sorrowful passion O Lord, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
I want to urge you in the name of the Lord, not to go on living the aimless kind of life that pagans live. Now that is hardly the way you have learnt from Christ, unless you failed to hear him properly when you were taught what the truth is in Jesus. You must give up your old way of life; you must put aside your old self, which gets corrupted by following illusory desires. Your mind must be renewed by a spiritual revolution so that you can put on the new self that has been created in God’s way, in the goodness and holiness of the truth.
JOHN 6:24-35
My Soul's Beloved,
The sad truth with which You gently admonish the people who sought You after the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish applies to almost all of us Lord. We come to You to feed our bellies, to heal our wounds, to demand that You hear and answer our prayers, and fulfill our incessant whining demands to give, give, give.
Let us pay close attention to what You say to the people for it is what You say to us as well in every age and in every generation:
Jesus answered:
‘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 food that endures to eternal life,
the kind of food the Son of Man is offering you,
for on him the Father, God himself, has set his seal.’
‘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 food that endures to eternal life,
the kind of food the Son of Man is offering you,
for on him the Father, God himself, has set his seal.’
Our whole life is a seeking for that which fulfills our deepest needs, longings, and yearnings of the soul. We ask the same question that the people who came looking for You asked You:
‘What must we do if we are to do the works that God wants?’
And the right and true answer is given by You:
‘This is working for God: you must believe in the one he has sent.’
All too often this is not the answer we are looking for. We want a response that our flesh and our weaknesses desire. We do not want to make sacrifices, we do not want to be selfless, we do not want to give, to love, to serve in humility and obedience. Instead, we demand, complain, and get discouraged and angry when looking for satisfaction apart from You, we continue to be empty and our lives fruitless. So like them, we demand signs and deceive ourselves when You give them we will believe in You. ‘What sign will you give to show us that we should believe in you? What work will you do? Our fathers had manna to eat in the desert; as scripture says: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’
Let us pay heed to Your response, believe in Your Word, embrace it, and live it every moment of every day that we are alive on earth so at the time of death, we will make a peaceful transition from this life to the next where we will enjoy the bliss of beholding You in glory and receive a share in it forever. What You said to them You say to us always and in every age:
‘I tell you most solemnly,
it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven,
it is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven,
the true bread;
for the bread of God
is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.’
‘Sir,’ they said ‘give us that bread always.’ Jesus answered:
‘I am the bread of life.
He who comes to me will never be hungry;
he who believes in me will never thirst.’
it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven,
it is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven,
the true bread;
for the bread of God
is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.’
‘Sir,’ they said ‘give us that bread always.’ Jesus answered:
‘I am the bread of life.
He who comes to me will never be hungry;
he who believes in me will never thirst.’
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