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18thSunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B
August 5, 2018
St. Mark’s Church, Fallston, MD
Things of Lasting Value
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
A Couple Realizes…
Ten years ago, in 2008, the biggest financial frauds in history took place.
A New York stockbroker named Bernie Madoff swindled 20.000 investors out of more than $64 billion – imagine that, $64 billion! That’s 64 followed by 9 zeros! Investors found their portfolios, their retirement savings, and the college funds for their children wiped out.
Madoff is now serving a 150-year prison term in North Carolina. Besides losing their money, many of Madoff’s investors lost their homes and for some, their marriages and families broke apart.
But some of them have shown great strength and have even gained a new perspective on life. And this is why I am recalling all of this.
A New York Times article told the story of one couple some years after this financial tragedy. They are both now in their late seventies.
They had been enjoying what we’d term an early luxurious retirement, but then in the blink of an eye they’d lost 80% of their assets in the Madoff scheme.
They had to sell homes in New Jersey, Florida, and Vermont. They now live in a small house in a Vermont community.
The couple says that they feel lucky. They realize that what they lost has not affected their health and the love between them and with their children.
The husband says, “When your life gets altered overnight, you realize that you don’t have to belong to a country club or drive an expensive car. You
certainly don’t have to own three separate dwelling places.”
certainly don’t have to own three separate dwelling places.”
It took a tragedy to realize that.
Several years ago, they went to their old country club for a wedding reception. This made them realize that it is not just their circumstances that have changed.
They themselves have changed. The wife says, “That’s just not who we are anymore.”
“…What Endures for Eternal Life”
This husband and wife may not realize it, but they help to illustrate what Jesus is saying in today’s Gospel.
Some of the people who had experienced his miraculous feeding the 5,000 – last Sunday’s gospel – some of these people are pursuing Jesus. But he, in effect, says that they are only gathering around him to see what else he could give them.
Jesus is not discounting the importance of physical food or of eating. What he is getting at is our being absorbed in things that are not of lasting value.
So, Jesus says: “Do not work for food that perishes. Instead,”he declares, “Work for food that endures for eternal life.”
Jesus wants us to focus our energy and vision on things of long-term importance and deeper value. And then he identifies the two “things” he has in mind.
The Two “Things” That Endure
First, Jesus stresses the importance of relationships.
He says: “I am the bread of life.” Underneath this statement is the truth that what is important in life is persons and not money, comforts, or possessions.
So, we need to put our energy into the persons in our lives – your husband or wife, your friend, son or daughter, or aging parent. These relationships will have far greater value than any material thing.
And we need to give priority to these relationships. For what they do for us and for others as persons will, as Jesus says, “endure for eternal life.”
Second, Jesus gets very specific about the relationship that is most important and most valuable.
He says: “I am the bread of life; +whoever comes to me will never hunger.”In other words, the relationship with Jesus is paramount.
Why? Because it will positively affect all of our other relationships and indeed our entire life.
So, we need to make our relationship with Jesus central to our lives. We do this through personal prayer, through reading the Scripture, and feeding on the Eucharist.
Jesus, his way of living and his way of relating, is to our relationships with others the way the roots are to a tree. They nourish, offer stability, anchor it in storms, and water it that it may flourish and flower.
In relationship with him we are assured to, “endure for eternal life.”
Conclusion
So, as we receive the Eucharist, let’s allow this “bread of life” to stir our relationship with Jesus.
And let’s allow our relationship with him to move us to make a priority the other important relationships in our lives.
Life from him expressed as life for others becomes, “the food that endures for eternal life.”
It’s a promise that is being fulfilled in this very hour together.
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