No surprise to you, but often I am counseling people struggling with their relationships in family– spouse, children, neighbors, people at work, and/or a lack of self-worth. Depending on the situation, one question I ask that leads to in-depth discussion is: what is the positive possibility that God wants from you in this pain?
The question brings God into the hurt. Most often there are no easy or quick fix answers. The pain may not go away, but the question brings a connectedness a sense that the Lord is in the mess with us. For God has brought us to this particular place and time with relationships we have in family, the community we live in, and the parish where we worship. Our lives have meaning and purpose. However, we can ignore and not be present to what God is teaching us in many of life’s challenges in relationships and how we are living. Life lessons are all around us, but we need to be attentive to the meaning of those lessons from God. If we look at the decisions we made that brought us to a particular negative situation, it can help us avoid repeating the same mistakes. A self-reflective examination might include what is God teaching me in this experience? Take the time in quiet prayer with the Lord and review-even make notes. If we reflect on those times where and when we did have options and why we chose the way we did, we and consciously include the Lord, we will make better decisions with peace.
If we are not attentive and reflective, we can bounce around aimlessly and miss God’s plan for us. Or miss out on possibilities for change through God at work in our lives. Wrong choices that cause pain are one of the messages in our readings today: the result of non-reflective reactions.
The Israelites in the Book of Exodus think that a return to slavery for the quick fix of food would be the best solution to their problem with their God-provided diet – the manna come down from heaven. Grumbling about their blessings, grumbling that they were set free from slavery, and glorifying their past as if slavery and being fed by their captors were good things, the desert wanderers remind us of how easily we can overlook our blessings.
The ancient Israelites missed the message of God just like the crowd gathered around Jesus in the Gospel of John; for they are fixated by the miracle of the loaves and fish, yet fail to see God in their midst. Jesus knows that the crowd is following him for more food and more miracles, but his response to them is the same to us. “I myself am the bread of life. No one who comes to me shall ever be hungry; no one who believes in me shall thirst again.”
Then why are we still hungry, why are we still thirsty? Because there are times when many of us are too stiff necked/stubborn to pay the price to eat the Bread of Life. Because that price requires a conversion to live the Bread of Life in decisions we make and the way we live with others. What do I mean?
Jesus, challenges our life system, our values and the way that we live them out. He calls us to self-reflection and moral responsibility for one another. He teaches that going through life without considering the consequences of our actions, not just on the people around us, but on the world itself, is costly to all. How often do we think of our motives and the consequences of our actions?
There is a great price when we give into overindulgence –to be bouncing around through life in a non-reflective non-responsible way. Many people are becoming increasingly irritated, impatient due to unrealistic expectations and unmet desires. We can be illogical and unjustifiable in our behavior, our motives and our actions—just like the crowds that demanded more from Jesus.
Jesus the Christ stood before the people of the day, offering the gift of true spiritual wellbeing, but that is not what they wanted. As the Lord’s life on earth teaches us, it is very tough to give people what they need — when it is not actually what they want. Jesus the Christ’s Bread of Life is also offered to us—the Real Presence in our midst calling us to examine our motives and our actions in daily life to be responsible for one another. Sharing our blessings and serving to multiply His Bread of Life.
The Bread Jesus gives nourishes our life here, helps us grow stronger spiritually to make the right choices for our good and that of the people in our lives. Living him requires that we examine our motives and our actions—daily. It is through conversion that we grow to be worthy of what he gives us—the Bread of Life, a Life offered that remains after our physical death.