Monday of the Third Week of Easter

"Why We Come to God"

The exchange between Jesus and the crowd in today’s Gospel reading (John 6:22-29) should raise questions for all of us about what we expect from God, from Christ, from religion or from faith. “Amen, amen” he says to them, “you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled.” Following Jesus around because he is a sort of traveling low-coast bakery is a pretty crass example of looking to faith for cut-rate products. We human beings with our tendency to make everything revolve around ourselves are prone to look for self-satisfaction in everything, including religion.

We hear occasionally of preachers who actually promise material success or well-being for faith. It doesn’t have to be that crass to reflect our self-seeking. We can come to religion for peace of mind and tranquility of heart. We can look to religion for miracles that will save ordinary human effort and skill. We can come to religion to have our merely human values, for instance, as middle-class people, confirmed and validated. We can come to religion to avoid facing the real problems in our own lives or our world. Certainly religion can produce a profound peace and courage in the face of life’s storms, trials and pains. But this is a by-product of centering our lives on God, of giving our faith and trust to God (Isaiah 8:17/ Hebrews 2:13). Many do that and still suffer terribly. The Living God and our faith in the Living God do not take us out of this world but rather help take us through it (John 17:15). As someone has put it, we must seek the God of miracles and consolation, and not the miracles and consolations of God.