Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Jn 6: 22-29
April 24, 2023 | Monday

Today’s Gospel

Next day, the people, who had stayed on the other side, realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples; but rather, the disciples had gone away alone. Other boats from Tiberias landed near the place where all these people had eaten the bread. When they saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Master, when did you come here?”

Jesus answered, “Truly, I say to you, you look for me, not because of the signs which you have seen, but because you ate bread and were satisfied. Work then, not for perishable food, but for the lasting food which gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give it to you, for he is the one on whom the Father has put his mark.”

Then the Jews asked him, “What shall we do? What are the works that God wants us to do?” And Jesus answered them, “The work God wants is this: that you believe in the One whom God has sent.”

The crowd that follows the Lord is a crowd still amazed by the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, it is a crowd that tries above all to be satisfied and be secure of man’s basic need: food. But Jesus tries to make it clear that this is not the way of discipleship , that man cannot think only of his physical needs, of the food, clothes, etc. The man of faith does not seek first of all the things of the world but puts the things of God first in his life, such as God’s friendship. The man of faith desires to “strip himself” of physical needs to follow Christ and to do the will of the Father as he did. Rest assured of Divine Providence is enough. /Vulnerasti, 2023