If you live in the United States, April 15th has a special place in your heart, or at least your wallet.
Today is the deadline to file your state and federal income taxes. If you’ve prepared, you can breathe a sigh of relief and perhaps reflect on how you’re doing financially, not only for the past year, but also for the long run—hopefully with peace of mind.
In the gospel reading, Jesus is calling us to consider both the present and the long run when it comes to work, too, but on a deeper level. The reading picks up just after the miraculous feeding of the multitude and just before Jesus' Bread of Life discourse.
Heavenly Bread
In this section, Jesus is preparing us to elevate our sights above the physical bread that nourishes our earthly lives to the heavenly bread that He provides for eternal life.
We can understand how people were drawn to Jesus for earthly concerns, including satisfying physical hunger, and with the hope that He would become their king and provide for the essentials of life on earth: food, safety, and a well-ordered society.
Jesus teaches them to go beyond these earthly concerns to hunger for the food that endures for eternal life. He then moves to a foundational principle that we are to work for that food, and the Son of Man will give it to us.
An observant Jew would hear these words and think about how the Torah and the Mosaic law were understood as food and drink, providing spiritual nourishment, just as we think of the Word of God and the Eucharist.
Why Do We Work?
So often, we get caught up in the day-to-day of working, shopping, and even saving and investing our money that we fail to see the long view, including the real motivation for our work to provide for our families and to share in charity with others in need.
Jesus knows all of this and wants us to understand that while we are taking care of our loved ones and our needs on earth, we need to allow God to be at work in our hearts so that we may have faith in Jesus.
For it’s when we believe, when we place our trust in Jesus, that we can surrender to the Father’s will for our lives, and, in doing so, realize our hunger for His Son, Jesus.
Let us ask ourselves what we are really working for and whether we are seeking Jesus to nourish us in our work.
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