Joke: Late have I come for the heavenly banquet. An elderly couple, having been married for almost sixty years, died in a car crash. They had been in good health for the previous ten years mainly due to the wife’s interest in healthy food and exercise. When they reached the pearly gates, Saint Peter took them to their mansion which was decked out with a beautiful kitchen and master bath suite, Jacuzzi, and lavish buffet breakfast. "How much can we eat" asked the old man. "Don't you understand" Peter replied. "This is Heaven, it's all free!" After a sumptuous breakfast, the old couple went to the clubhouse of Heaven’s extensive golf grounds and saw the lavish buffet lunch. "Where are the low-fat and low-cholesterol tables" the old man asked timidly. Peter replied, "That's the best part...you can eat as much as you like of whatever you like and you never get fat and you never get sick. This is Heaven." The old man looked at his wife angrily and said, "This is all your fault. If it weren't for your bran muffins and sugar-free diet, I could have been here ten years ago!"

Perhaps, the life of this elderly couple was driven and determined by eating healthy food and doing exercise so that they reached to heaven late. In all of today’s readings, we are invited to redirect our lives to focus on the food that gives us everlasting life. The questions are: What and how should we live our lives that through receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, we shall have an everlasting life?

In today’s first reading, the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron that the Lord heard and instructed Moses saying, “I will now rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion; thus will I test them, to see whether they follow my instructions or not.” Remember what happens to Adam and Eve when God put them into the garden, “They shall eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden.” As described in the book of Genesis, “It is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat or even touch it, lest you die.’” God gave, and he also asked. He gave people mana from heaven to fill their hunger, but he asked them to go out and gather their daily portion, just enough for each individual or family. Perhaps, they wanted to save for the next day and days followed and didn’t follow God’s instruction. Perhaps, we too, ask God not only for our daily bread but for extra days and years to come. Look at our society. Isn’t that we get paid weekly, biweekly, or monthly unless we work for a private contract, we might get paid daily. However, we rarely get paid daily. Perhaps, we might have difficulty dealing with our daily wage because we cannot control it.

In today’s Gospel, there are two questions that people ask Jesus, perhaps these are the questions that we ask the Lord too, especially when we pray and pray and haven’t received what we ask for. They ask Jesus, “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do?” Has Jesus answered these questions? He answers these questions not by showing them the signs that he has no problem performing, but he tells them directly what he can do and do much greater sign than any other signs he has done saying, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” Have they believed in what Jesus said? (Listen to the Gospel next weekend.) The question is why have they had difficulty believing in Jesus, the Son of God, and the Bread of life? In the middle of today’s Gospel, Jesus answers them after they ask him when he has arrived saying, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not b/c you saw signs but b/c you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” Have we ever been conscious of what are we working for or even praying for in our life?

A man who ruled boxing between the years 1919 to the year 1926, Jack Demsey. After a champion boxing fight, Jack couldn’t fall asleep till 2:00 AM. He woke up an hour after falling asleep caused he thought that he lost the fight in his dream. Since he couldn’t sleep, he went to town to get the newspapers to see what people said about him and so to calm him down. After reading the news, Jack finally learns that his championship brings him no taste, joy, or peace that he used to dream of before. Have we ever experienced what Jack Demsey experienced? We spend all our efforts, time, talent, and maybe our treasure too, for a purpose of life, and when we achieve what we dream of, work for, and spend all our energy, health, and everything we have for it, in the end, we still find ourselves empty and no peace. Isn’t that because like Jesus said and warned us in today’s Gospel, “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you?” Jesus encourages us to come to him for eternal life, and Saint Paul in today’s second reading invites us saying, “Put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth.” Only in Christ, through Christ, and for Christ we can live a life of truth and just, peace and joy. What have you based your life on truth and justice, peace and joy in this walk of life? The decision is yours.