{"id":3147,"date":"2024-08-04T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-04T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=3147"},"modified":"2024-08-03T18:12:09","modified_gmt":"2024-08-03T18:12:09","slug":"the-bread-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2024\/08\/04\/the-bread-of-life\/uncategorized\/3147\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bread of Life."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Image by Gini George from pixabay.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This week’s readings both focus on the reality of our physical needs and point us beyond them. It seems to me that this speaks to the heart of our reality. As humans we have real, physical needs that can’t be pushed aside if we are to flourish. This is played out in the first reading when the Israelites complain to Moses and Aaron that they have no food. When the Moses takes their complaint to the Lord it’s met, with no quibbling or blaming:

\u201cI have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel. Say this to them, \u201cBetween the two evenings you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have bread to your heart\u2019s content <\/em>.”

But God also knows that meeting physical needs alone is not enough for true human flourishing, for that both our spiritual and physical needs need to be addressed. So, having provided manna to satisfy their hunger God seeks to draw the people into a deeper relationship saying:

“Then you will learn that I, the Lord, am your God.” <\/em>

The gospel, following on from the feeding of the five thousand, has a similar pattern. Having met the physical needs of the hungry and tired crowd Jesus invited them to embrace a bigger picture:

\u2018I am the bread of life. Those who comes to me will never be hungry; those who believes in me will never thirst.\u2019<\/em>

In offering them himself, the Bread of Life, offers them the opportunity to accept a reality that acknowledges both their physical and spiritual needs.

Where is Christ offering you nourishment today?
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week’s readings both focus on the reality of our physical needs and point us beyond them. It seems to me that this speaks to the heart of our reality. As humans we have real, physical needs that can’t be pushed aside if we are to flourish. This is played out in the first reading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,494,395,239,271,537,246,1],"tags":[28,683,18,53,223,396,655,6,8,682,33,229,13,29,48,15,10],"class_list":["post-3147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-communion","category-gospel","category-lectio-divina","category-liturgy","category-scripture","category-uncategorized","tag-benedictine","tag-breadoflife","tag-challenge","tag-christ","tag-christlike","tag-eucharist","tag-god","tag-gospel","tag-hope","tag-israelites","tag-kingdom","tag-kingdomvalues","tag-lectiodivina","tag-love","tag-moses","tag-newlife","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3147"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3153,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3147\/revisions\/3153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}