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Gospel Reading for May 05, 2025 – John 6: 22-29
OUTMOST IMPORTANCE
[After Jesus had fed the five thousand men, his disciples saw him walking on the sea.]
The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat, but only his disciples had left. Other boats came from Tiberias near the place where they had eaten the bread when the Lord gave thanks. When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”
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The quote which is often attributed to Benjamin Franklin but sometimes to Socrates: “Some people eat to live, some live to eat” says a lot about the gospel reading for today. Which one are we?
Filling up our stomach keeps us alive, but eating the bread that is the Body of Christ, gives us life.
There are many of us who are so bent on amassing wealth as if money is the be-all and end-all of our existence here on earth. When we give OUTMOST IMPORTANCE to money we will surely be destroyed. This is because we will do everything it takes to lay our hands on money, regardless of who owns it; not care whether we trample on the rights of others; not even care if lives will be lost as long as we can get it. GREED is a very serious capital offense. It is the opposite of an attribute of God: GENEROSITY. It is one of the attributes we also received being made in the image and likeness of God. Therefore, GREED does not belong to God. It belongs to the devil.
Come to think of it, we will all die someday and cannot bring all the wealth we have amassed whether legitimately or not, to the next life. It may even be a reason for us not to be counted among the sheep at the Last Judgment. All our gifts and capabilities come from God. We cannot lay claim to them. If we use our gifts and capabilities to the max, then, it gives glory to the Giver of gifts, but whatever comes out from using our gifts are not for us alone. They are also meant to be given to those who have less. For us Christians, there is no such thing as a “self-made person,” because even our ability to do hard work and effort still depends on God.
Let us reflect on this verse from Matthew 6: 24: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
