Column: The Lord Provides

In today's Gospel, Jesus superabundantly supplies for the people's need. And He still anticipates our needs and overabundantly provides for them. This sign he performed, in which he miraculously fed the large crowd, is in the sixth chapter of John. Later in the same chapter Jesus gives his famous "Bread of Life Discourse", claiming that unless one eat his flesh and drink his blood they have no life within them. This miraculous feast was a sign pointing to the miraculous feast he was going to give in the Eucharist, his very body and blood given for us to truly nourish us. The bread and fish eaten by the crowd that day nourished their bodies, but the true bread from heaven Christ gives us in Himself in the Eucharist nourishes our spirits. It is nourishment for our spiritual life, the part of us that is even more important than the life of our flesh (which is also very important!). 

In the Eucharist, there are more graces than we can receive. Just as the disciples picked up 12 baskets full of leftovers after everyone had had their fill (not just a little bit), so too in the Eucharist, there are more graces available than we could receive! As big of a container we bring, God will fill; and there will be still more available. How receptive are we to what God wants to give us? What if someone in the crowd that day had just eaten a big meal right before going to hear Jesus. Sure, they could still have received food from Jesus, but they could only receive a little bit. What are ways we do this in the spiritual life? 

Am I filling myself up with other things so that I don't have an appetite for God and spiritual goods? Or, what if someone was skeptical about this "miraculous" bread and refused to eat. Well, their refusal allowed for no reception and they would go hungry. Do we ever flat-out refuse to receive what God might want to give us in the realm of the spirit? Or, what if someone in the crowd was so hungry, and when they saw Jesus coming with some loaves of bread they eagerly asked him for as many as he would be willing to give, and he smiled and hands them some. How might we practice this posture in the spiritual life? Of acknowledging our hunger and asking Jesus to provide for us, confident that he is not only capable but "earnestly desiring" to do so? It's not a matter of his capacity, He is God -- infinitely capable.

How willing are we to receive and allow him to nourish us? As big of a container we bring him to fill he can. lf we bring only a thimble, then we have a thimble full. If we bring a bucket, we receive a bucket. If we bring a kiddie pool, we get a kiddie pool. Lord, open our hearts to receive all that you desire to give as you nourish us with your very self in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Amen.