Scripture:
Reflection:
Our lives can rightly be described as an ongoing search for what we think will fulfill and complete us, bringing peace to our frantically restless hearts. And our gospel today shows us how simple finding that peace really is. Jesus doesn’t leave us guessing but makes it as clear and straightforward as possible. “I myself am the bread of life,” he declares. “No one who comes to me shall ever be hungry, no one who believes in me shall thirst again.” Christ is the answer to the deepest and most poignant longings of our hearts. There is nothing else we need to know and no point in searching any further.
If we consume Christ entirely, if we open our hearts to him and allow him to remake us, we shall find life. If we make Christ the absolute center of our lives, truly abiding in him so that he lives in us and we in him, we will know eternal life; indeed, it will not be some unreachable future that is always before us, but the reality from which we live now. And when Jesus says that “no one who comes to me will I ever reject,” we learn there is no reason ever to feel anxious or worried or insecure because we are held fast by a love that will never let us go.
There are many ways to think about what it means to live from the power of Easter but knowing that we are held tight by a love that never gives up on us, a love that will never let go, and a love that promises to “raise us up” on the last day, surely gets to the heart of it.
Paul J. Wadell is Professor Emeritus of Theology & Religious Studies at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, and a member of the Passionist Family.