This week's reflection
SHORT MEMORIES AND DEEPEST HUNGERS
God must surely wonder at our capacity to quickly forget how we have been blessed. The people of Israel wasted no time in complaining to Moses about having been brought out of slavery in Egypt! It was not enough that they had seen the army of Pharaoh drowned, or the plagues sent as signs that God was working through Moses. In a similar fashion the people who had seen Jesus heal so many who suffered from sickness, and then feed the multitude, will demand a further sign from Jesus in order that they would believe in him and trust in him as the bread of life!
There is a tremendous tension in these readings between the patience and generosity of God on one hand, and on the other, the ways in which we can fail to appreciate and accept what God is offering us. In time the people in the desert tired even of the quail and manna, just as many of Jesus’ contemporaries were unable to accept that he was the bread of life, and the answer to their deepest hunger and needs.
As Paul knew all too well the process of conversion is an ongoing one, a challenge to leave behind our old selves, that is, that which does not answer our most heartfelt needs or engender life. Even though we may recognise that Jesus is the source of our life it can still be a struggle to nurture the new life of Jesus within us because of old patterns of acting or perceiving
Christopher Monaghan CP
God must surely wonder at our capacity to quickly forget how we have been blessed. The people of Israel wasted no time in complaining to Moses about having been brought out of slavery in Egypt! It was not enough that they had seen the army of Pharaoh drowned, or the plagues sent as signs that God was working through Moses. In a similar fashion the people who had seen Jesus heal so many who suffered from sickness, and then feed the multitude, will demand a further sign from Jesus in order that they would believe in him and trust in him as the bread of life!
There is a tremendous tension in these readings between the patience and generosity of God on one hand, and on the other, the ways in which we can fail to appreciate and accept what God is offering us. In time the people in the desert tired even of the quail and manna, just as many of Jesus’ contemporaries were unable to accept that he was the bread of life, and the answer to their deepest hunger and needs.
As Paul knew all too well the process of conversion is an ongoing one, a challenge to leave behind our old selves, that is, that which does not answer our most heartfelt needs or engender life. Even though we may recognise that Jesus is the source of our life it can still be a struggle to nurture the new life of Jesus within us because of old patterns of acting or perceiving
Christopher Monaghan CP
