Complaints against God are not in themselves a sin; they figure in scripture on many occasions. It’s what they lead to that’s important.

For the next four weeks, the whole church concentrates on a single chapter of John’s gospel. Its subject is Jesus, the Bread of Life. It’s rare in the liturgical calendar to provide such a prolonged emphasis, but our intent focus is a matter of importance to our lives as Catholic Christians. We gather weekly around this table of our Eucharist, hoping to discover ever more deeply its meaning.

My Father is right now offering you bread from heaven, the real bread. The Bread of God came down out of heaven and is giving life to the world.

It’s human nature to look for signs that you’re doing the right thing, that you’re on the right track. You look for validation from others, good results from your actions, rewards for your work. But it takes special faith to see positive signs in loss, to see them as God’s hand helping you along.

With faith in God’s salvation, we ask for mercy.

Jesus is food that gives eternal life, and the one task to do in order to be fed is to believe it.

Bread for myself is a material question. Bread for my neighbor is a spiritual one. –Nikolai Berdyaev, 1874-1948