In the reading from the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus tells the people that he is the bread that has come down from heaven. And what do they do? They murmur. “Who does he think he is? They would rather complain instead of listening to what he has to say.
Jesus says: “I am the bread of life,” Jesus tells them. “Come to the Feast.” But they would rather grumble.
In some ways, perhaps in many ways we act the same, like those ancient Israelites. We murmur. We grumble. Perhaps we grumble over our jobs, our neighbors, or about far more important aspects of our lives, your children, your spouses, our relatives. If we grumble enough, we will see negativity everywhere, including, and perhaps most especially in the Church or even, like the ancient Israelites, in God.
It is easy to be negative. It is also an infectious disease. One negative thought leads to another. One negative person easily infects another.
We are the People of the Promise and People of Hope. How do we do it? How do we hold on to Christian optimism through tragedy? How do we avoid the contagion of negativity?
Someone recently wrote: “We must resist the temptation to remain silent when witnessing injustice. When experiencing adversity, we must resist the temptation to become cynical.” This writer went on to say: “…once we are aware of the many problems in the world that include injustice, war, crime, poverty, societal violence, oppression, and environmental destruction… we become accountable and are no longer innocent.”
And so, by strengthening our hope, empathy, appreciation, and conscience, we stop murmuring and we act; we do something. By our sharing in the Eucharistic bread and wine, may we be transformed into what we eat and drink, broken and shared with all people.
God bless! Have a wonderful week!