Manna from heaven is what we’re all waiting for. But we keep looking up to the sky to find it, instead of in the body of Christ, namely our sisters and brothers.

In today’s gospel Jesus knows that many of his followers sought him out for the wrong reason. “You are looking for me . . . because you ate the loaves and were filled.”

The brain is a disorderly vehicle for thinking: untidy and easily distracted. It also has the unnerving tendency to act like a sieve whenever we’re trying to remember something important, meanwhile fastening stubbornly on the disturbing incident we’d most like to forget.

There are many different diet plans. Bookstore shelves are filled with diets that say eat only this type of food or that. Some diets tell people to skip a particular food.

Each one of us who is not independently wealthy wakes up and, in one way or another, tries to do exactly what Jesus tells us not to do: work for food that perishes.

Mark Twain wrote, “I have known many troubles in my life, most of which never happened.” I know about such troubles, too.

In faith and trust we turn to the God who provides for us.

I long to understand in some degree thy truth, which my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand.