BY USING VISIBLE SIGNS JESUS ​​TAKES US FROM THE MATERIAL TO THE SPIRITUAL

Jesus will proclaim the blessedness of those who believe without having seen: «Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed». Faith opens your eyes and allows you to trace the sign to its profound meaning, from the gift to the Giver, from material reality to its symbolic dimension, from material bread to the "bread of life"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The reading of the Johannine Gospel puts us in contact with the particular way this author has of narrating the events of Jesus. The intent of the singular evangelist is to elevate us from the simple historical fact narrated to the meaning or mystery hidden in it. What Gregory the Great wrote referring to the Holy Scripture could be applied to him: «In one and the same language as he narrates the text, reveals the mystery (Because with the same word while expounding the text he enunciates a mystery)» (Morals in Job, XX,1).

The statement of a question and sometimes misunderstandings are useful to the author of the Fourth Gospel to carry out this hermeneutic operation. The Samaritan woman asks Jesus how she can draw from the well without a means, Magdalene asks where the body of Jesus which she could no longer find had been placed. The very first disciples ask Jesus: «Where are you staying?». In the evangelical page of this XVIII Sunday there are actually three questions: «Rabbi, when you came here?»; «What must we do?»; «What sign do you perform so that we see and believe?». Here is the page of the Gospel we want to talk about.

"During that time, when the crowd saw that Jesus was no longer there and neither were his disciples, he got into the boats and headed for Capernaum in search of Jesus. They found him across the sea and told him: “Rabbi, when you came here?”. Jesus answered them: "In truth, verily I tell you: you are looking for me not because you have seen signs, but because you ate those loaves and were satisfied. Get busy not for food that doesn't last, but for the food that remains for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. Because the Father is on him, It gave, he put his seal". They told him then: “What must we do to do the works of God?”. Jesus answered them: “This is God's work: that you believe in him whom he has sent". Then they told him: “What sign do you perform so that we see and believe you? What work do you do? Our fathers ate manna in the desert, as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat’. Jesus answered them: "In truth, verily I tell you: it is not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you bread from heaven, the true one. Indeed, the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.". Then they told him: "Man, always give us this bread". Jesus answered them: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will not be hungry and whoever believes in me will not be thirsty, May!”» (GV 6,24-35).

With today's song the Lectionary introduces us to the discourse on the bread of life contained in chapter VI of the Fourth Gospel. The initial notes put us in contact with the anxiety of the crowds looking for Jesus. If we keep in mind what the v. 23: «the place where they had eaten bread, after the Lord had given thanks"; we understand what had remained imprinted in the memory of the crowd. Having eaten abundant bread is an initial stage, but it is enough to set people moving in search of Jesus. The description of this one is a little confusing, how to make people perceive, through the breathlessness and anxiety of the crowd, an inchoative search for faith: first they see only one boat, then they notice that Jesus had not gone up there, then they see other boats arriving (vv. 22. 23). And when they finally track him down in Capernaum the question «When did you come here?» (GV 6,25), shows more of an interest in Jesus' movements, how he could have escaped them, than having understood the hidden meaning of the sign performed by Jesus. The reader is thus spontaneously invited to ask himself: «What do we look for when we want to meet Jesus?».

The words of Jesus they initially lay bare this search which does not go in depth and stops at the edge of the satisfied need: «You are looking for me not because you saw signs, but because you ate those loaves and were satisfied" (GV 6,26). The crowds did not understand the sign and the extraordinary novelty that it indicated, namely that in Jesus the superabundant gratuitousness of God is revealed which is not limited to imminent need, present now, but it leads to an eternal future. What Jesus says is decisive in this regard: «Get to work for the food that does not perish, but which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you." (GV 6,27).

The verb used, you work, which means to work, do concretely, earn, recalls the other curious expression of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of John: «do the Truth». The first thing expected from a man who is confronted with Christ and his word is that he "do the truth". This biblical formula doesn't mean what you might think: live in accordance with the truth. «Doing the truth» entails, in the Fourth Gospel, the entire process of assimilation of the revelation brought by Jesus, the path of progress in faith; means «to make one's own the truth" of Jesus, listening to his word and contemplating his person and his actions. Thus man progressively enters the mystery of Christ and becomes Christian. But believing is not enough. The believer must also deepen his faith. It is what John defines with the expression: "know the truth". This profound knowledge is not acquired in a day; it is obtained little by little, with the very rhythm of the development of faith.

Here then is that Jesus, according to Johannine's own way of narrating, it allows us to enter into a profound understanding of the sign accomplished, moving from the material to the spiritual, from need to desire for God, to faith in Christ who gives the bread of eternal life. Responding, so, to people's question about what the "works of God" to do are (v. 28), Jesus does not refer to "good works", for example fasting, of almsgiving or prayer. There are not many works, but only one: the work of faith. The famous diatribe between faith and works in Saint John is overcome by stating that faith is the essential and necessary work. It gives meaning and orientation to the sacramentality of the Christian's actions. The work of God, that is, what allows God to operate in man, it is faith, so expressed by Jesus: “Believe in him whom he has sent” (GV 6,29). And recalling the theme of doing and Truth, previously mentioned, in the same Gospel Jesus had stated: «He who does the truth comes towards the light, so that it appears clearly that his works were done in God " (GV 3,21).

Jesus' response it is not received and understood in depth by his interlocutors who ask him again for a sign that legitimizes his authority and enables them to "see and believe" (GV 6,30). To substantiate the request, the crowds cite the episode that occurred during the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt, when the gift of manna legitimized the authority of Moses (Is 16,4.15; Shall 78,24). We are still in the perspective of miracles and the gift of exchange, as happens among the powers of this world, a perspective abhorred by Jesus so whoever has seen his signs wants to make him king (GV 6,14-15). But to the "seeing is believing" logic of the crowds, Jesus actually opposes "believing to see". Maybe he won't tell Marta: «I didn't tell you that, if you believe, you will see the glory of God?» (GV 11,40)? To Thomas who affirms: «If I don't see, ... I don't think so" (GV 20,25) Jesus will proclaim the blessedness of those who believe without having seen: «Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed» (GV 20,29). Faith opens your eyes and allows you to trace the sign to its profound meaning, from the gift to the Giver, from material reality to its symbolic dimension, from material bread to the "bread of life" (GV 6,35), the "real bread" (GV 6,32), the "bread of God" (GV 6,33), the bread that is not the fruit of the earth, but "which descends from heaven" (GV 6,33).

Jesus clarifies then through his affirmation of faith, which operates a passage from the past to the present, from the events of the Exodus to today, and reveals who gives the Bread, the true one, which is Jesus the Christ: «It is not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven, the real one" (GV 6,32). God who for Jesus is "my Father" (GV 6,33) he didn't "give", as in the past, but finally he "gives" this bread today and always. This is the culminating point where Jesus reveals the work of God the Father which is accomplished in Him and which the manna of the Sinaitic desert prefigured. And the revelation is that this bread is Christ himself: «I am the bread of life». This Sunday's evangelical pericope stops here, about this self-revelation: "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will not be hungry and whoever believes in me will not be thirsty, more» (GV 6,35).

The Latin Father Saint Ambrose (339-340 – 397), commenting on the Psalm 118, this is how he expresses himself:

«It's up to you to take this bread. Approach this bread and you will take it. If you turn away from Christ, you will die, if you get closer to Christ, you will live. This is the bread of life: so, who eats Life, he cannot die. How can he who has Life as food die?? How can he who has Life for sustenance fail? Draw near to Him and be satisfied: He is bread. Approach Him and drink: He is the source. Come close to Him and let yourselves be enlightened: He is the light. Draw near to Him and let yourselves be set free: in fact where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom there. Draw near to Him and let your bonds be loosened: He is the remission of sins. You wonder who He is? Listen to what he himself says: “I am the bread of life: whoever comes to me will no longer be hungry, whoever comes to me will never be thirsty again”».

 

From the Hermitage, 4 August 2024

 

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