Short Reflection On The Gospel from the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Short Reflection On The Gospel from the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Jesus has fed the 5000, and in response to this miracle, the crowd rushes to Jesus to make him king. In most translations, it reads that Jesus fled from the crowd. His purpose in life was not to be limited to merely being some earthly king. His purpose was to bring salvation to the world, and to fill the hearts of people to aspire to become what God had intended humanity to be at creation, and not this lowered state of existence into which humanity had slipped because of Sin.

Having given the 5000 the slip, Jesus and this disciples relocated to Capernaum on the opposite side of the Sea of Galilee. People search for him there. Jesus tells them that he is not merely a meal ticket. He challenges them to think beyond their stomachs. He challenges them to seek not just those things that are temporal, for those things will never satisfy that for what they truly long. Those things will always leave them wanting. Their temporal hunger will never reach fulfillment, they will return to the state of hunger, thirst, the need for more things. Don’t set your goals in life so low, Jesus tells them. Your goal is not going to found here on earth.

Is it not the case for many of us? That to which we aspire, whether it be money, position, power, beauty, popularity, celebrity, comfort, security, whatever it may be, will never be satisfied. All these things are merely temporal, transitory states that come to us and can just as easily be taken from us. Are we like the people in this gospel story setting our sights and goals low?

Jesus challenges us to seek that which exists just beyond that which we can see, touch, taste, hear and smell. The first step to transcend the state of our humanity, as it may be now in the present, is to believe in Jesus. Jesus is more than just a mere meal ticket to temporary happiness. He is the gateway, the entrance to something that is far more fulfilling than that which we can aspire to here on earth. As Jesus will later utter in John’s gospel, he “is the way, the truth, and the life.”

Do we really believe it? Are we willing to step away from that which is comfortable and dare to follow after Jesus, placing all our trust in him? W.C. Fields, the comedian, once quipped, “Lady Godiva put everything she had on a horse.” Are we willing to put everything we have on Jesus?