Are our hearts open to the intangible?
Like the Israelites complaining to Moses in Exodus, we tend
to covet the tangible. They want their fill of bread, and God, remarkably,
answers their grumbling with a tangible foodstuff: In the
evening twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your
fill of bread. Why? So that
you may know that I, the Lord, am your God.
This is the bread of angels of
which Psalm 78 speaks, manna, heavenly
bread. The Israelites are satisfied
(at least for a time) by tangible food over which they believe they exercise
some control; but soon, having only what is necessary is not enough, and their
grumbling will recommence. Their hearts
are not open to the intangible, and their trust, their faith is limited.
In John’s Gospel, the crowds in Capernaum are looking for a
repeat of Jesus’ earlier sign, the multiplication of the loaves and
fishes. But Jesus is clear in his
response to them: Do not work for food that perishes, but for the food that endures for
eternal life. Unlike Moses, Jesus
goes straight for the intangible: the
food that endures is the food of
faith; the bread that comes down from
heaven is Jesus himself, come down to be in their very midst. The crowds need to place their trust in the
intangible love of God, which is visible only to the heart; this is the crux of
faith. When Paul writes to the
Ephesians, it is this intangible love that allows a new self, created in God’s way (of love!) in righteousness and holiness of truth. It is the intangible, both Jesus and Paul
tell us, that is truly of value, that makes life worth living – and that truth
is found in the intangible love of God given expression by the man Jesus.
Is your heart open to that intangible that is Jesus, God’s
love incarnate?
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Image source: Wordle
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