Today’s liturgical theme is built on food, satiety and transformation.The First Reading portrays Israelites as a people who grumbled about everything. They longed for the pot of meat they ate in Egypt. Suddenly the cruel treatment and injustice they suffered for 430 years as slaves in Egypt seemed preferable to the deprivation of meat. It is easy for us to label them as ungrateful, not appreciative of the magnanimous action of God. Unde- serving as they were, yet God being the perfect Father, heard their un- reasonable complaints and provided them supernaturally with meat and bread, thus fulfilling the desires of their hearts. At God’s command heaven’s doors opened every morning, and rained down the bread of angels as food for humans ( cf. Psalm 78:23-25), and nature obeyed the Creator’s command to send a swarm of quails every evening to cover the ground around their tents. God showed His people that He could feed them with what they thought was impossible to have in the desert, and He assures He is just the same even in 21st century.

Today’s Gospel proclamation is about the afterglow of a similar miracle performed by our Lord Jesus, namely the feeding of the five thousand. The Lord is telling us today, as He told them then, to desire a deeper and intimate relationship with Him, The Living Bread. God’s word is alive and active, and when we build our life on The Word of God, we do not hunger and thirst for worldly affection and fame. Instead, we are renewed, with His peace and joy filling our hearts. His promises give us breakthroughs in im- possible circumstances, giving us victory as God’s children.

Food is known to renew and transform our weakened bodily systems. The heaven’s bread, The Word of God does the same to our mind, renewing it and enabling us to have the Heart and Mind of Christ. St Paul tells us to put off our old corrupted self and put on the new self that Christ has given us through His death and Resurrection. The Holy Spirit whom The Risen Lord released into us, tells us that we were created to be like Our Heavenly Father, and The Blood of Jesus has made us righteous and holy. Let us allow the Holy Spirit to transform our mindset from being slaves to our flesh to being the victorious sons and daughters of God.

Prayer: Abba Father, thank you for the new gift of victory in life. Seal it with the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.