Our Venerable Father Simeon of Persia (341); the Venerable Acacius, Bishop of Melitene (431-50)
Acts 5:21-33; John 6:14-27
Read John 6:14-27
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
If you found someone who could generate food for you instantly, wouldn’t you want him to be your king? Imagine how much more acutely felt this desire would be if you were a subsistence farmer in Judea at the time of our Lord’s miraculous multiplication of loaves? In our reading today, the people follow our Lord around the Lake and intercept Him, wanting to force Him to be their leader. Although they joyfully exclaim that they have found “the prophet” (v.14), they have not set their eyes on heaven, but on their own bellies. Although the Lord had provided for their ancestors’ needs in the wilderness by giving them bread from heaven through Manna, the people grumbled and would rather return to slavery in Egypt if it meant meat. At the Lake of Galilee, these people think they have found their new king and his name is Ronald McDonald.
It is easy, brothers and sisters, to exchange our heavenly promise for some “quick fix” in the present moment. The Church, in her wisdom, meets us where we are in this regard and provides for us an ascetic program of fasting in order to make sure our desires stay in their correct places. Esau’s birthright was better than the bowl of “red stuff” he sold it to his brother Jacob for. Adam and Eve would have been taught right from wrong if they had simply waited (fasted) from eating of the tree. Our Lord wants to give His people the Eucharist and not settle for bread that perishes.
As we continue to celebrate the Risen Lord this Paschal season, I encourage you to make a deeper commitment to entering into the ascetic program the Church offers us throughout the year. Through this discipline we will be trained to desire the Highest Good and be shaped into the people we have been called to be.