Feast of St. Alphonsus

Today we celebrate

the feast of Saint Alfonsus maria de Liguori. The founder of the Redemptorists, my spiritual father. He died on this day in 1787. He is a Saint, a doctor of the church, the patron of prayer and moral theology. Saint Alphonsus taught us his Redemptorist sons that there are three essential elements of Redemptorist spirituality: the incarnation, the crucifixion, and the Eucharist. All three of course point to Jesus. As these weeks we are reading the Gospel of Saint John chapter 6, I think it would be good to reflect on the Eucharist. Chapter 6 is the The Bread of Life discourse. Here we find the theology of Saint John on the Eucharist. If you remember last week we started the chapter. Five thousand people were filled with 5 loaves and two fish and as Jesus knew that the people were going to make him king, the he sent his disciples to the other side of the lake and he escaped to the mountains. Then he crossed the lake walking on the water. Now we continue the story on the other side of the lake. Jesus scolds the people saying; "You have come here not because you want to see me, but because you want more of the bread that I just gave you. ’’ The people are like me after eating something very tasty. And I can imagine my mother scolding me, "I know you are not coming to see me, you want more of my food." But she know what, if so, my mother does not get angry, but is happy that I am there and she will feed me. It's the same with Jesus. He does not get angry with people, he takes them where they are, but helps them deepen their desire. Jesus challenges the people saying: "work for food that will fill you forever that will give you eternal life. Not food that just fills you for one day.” But how can we not worry about our daily bread? Bread is essential to live. We need it and we must work so that no one is ever lacking. Jesus knows it. Bread comes first. Without eating we cannot subsist. It is not bad to work for bread. But Jesus wants to awaken in us a different hunger, a deeper hunger. He tells us about a bread that not only satisfies us for a day, but for bread that will feed us forever, the bread of eternal life. Jesus offers us "the Bread of eternal life." Worry about your daily bread, but search for more.. Jesus invites us into a very deep relationship with him. We are only in the middle of the chapter but when Jesus offers this bread, the people of Capernaum call out to Jesus from the bottom of their hearts: "Lord, give us that bread always." From our wavering faith, we will shout the same. Give us Lord of the bread of eternal life. But the bread that Jesus wants to give us is not just any bread, but it is Jesus himself. Jesus doesn’t want to give us bread He wants to give us his very self. He will feed us forever. Next week we will see how they respond to this offer of Jesus.