Word to the Wise
Monday, May 5, 2014 - 3rd Week of Easter - Mon
[Acts 6:8-15 and John 6:22-29]"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 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." [John]
An itinerant preacher like myself cannot leave St. Vincent Ferrer, O.P., unnoticed. He is known as the "Angel of the Apocalypse" because his preaching used a great amount of imagery of the end times relating to the punishment of unrepentant sinners. I can't claim to follow his example in that regard, but I do want to point to a contrast between that approach and what I see in the Gospel of John.
The great sin in the Gospel of John is unbelief. Jesus tells the crowd that the "works of God" are to believe in the one whom God has sent. There is a confrontation here that takes place after the crowds witnessed the multiplication of loaves and fishes. They are certainly willing to give some kind of credence to a person who can do that, even to the point of making him a "king," but not the kind of faith that recognizes Jesus as the messiah, the one sent by God who is one with God. This belief is the food that Jesus promises which will not perish. Blindness and unbelief are a denial of this "bread of life." Darkness comes to those who refuse to believe. In this sense, St. Vincent Ferrer would probably join me although he was most likely more confrontational that I usually am! At the same time, I present the challenge to understand how important our faith is. Everything else flows from it. It is "food! glorious food!" AMEN