A popular hobby these days is searching for one’s ancestors. You might know of the hit show about it on Public TV. Why the popularity? Many reasons, I’m sure. But one of them is that our ancestors establish our place in the lineup of history. Who is ahead of us in the human procession God continues to form?
Obviously, this subject was a primary interest of Jesus’ contemporaries. So, when He stepped out of the ordinary by the things He said about His ancestry, His listeners perked up with questions. The cynics among them took aim.
Our Gospel section from St. John tells us that Jesus ignored the latter and went on to talk about Himself as the “Bread of life.” He reminded them about one certainty in this life: eating the miraculous manna in no way prevented their deaths. He was telling them about a certain holy bread that would.
Joining this gospel with our First Reading from the Book of Kings we detect the theme of life as a journey. We often ignore that fact, especially when we’re young. Most of the time we focus on the here and now. Just after breakfast we might wonder “What’s for dinner?”
Readers of the Bible, at any age, know better. We are journeying to somewhere, and it’s just on the other side of our death. Logically, we know that for any journey to be successful we humans need nourishment. So, the smart road traveler has food and drink packed and ready. But what do we pack enroute to eternity? We believers in Jesus know for sure that He has provided both for us in the incomparable Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
The modern world has a big problem accepting as true anything which the 5 senses do not deliver to our minds. So much for the existence of angels, for example, which Our Lord surely acknowledged. What He said and did at the Last Supper, replacing the substance of a piece of bread and a cup of wine, and making it easily available to us, is both Gift and Guide for our journey.
Baseball great Yogi Berra once warned, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll wind up somewhere else.” The logic may appear muddled, but the truth is clear. Unless we have a positive, worthwhile goal, life can become a series of wrong turns and dead ends. Our Church’s saints, our ancestors in the Faith, knew this. Try to learn their stories, and choose a few favorites, so you too will know the way home. Home, that is, to Heaven.
God love you, as He walks with you on your journey.