Spare some compassion for the Sunday preacher, riding the raft of John Chapter 6 bread readings all month. Get used to hearing: “There’s a table at the center of our religion! Come and eat!” During the week, we attend to Matthew’s instruction, plus three weeks with the prophets before Saint Paul requests our attention at the end of the month.

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.

How would any of us survive the complexity of the 21st century without signs? I’m a big fan of all kinds of signs and indicators: like the ones that inform me how far it is to the next rest stop or the numbers on the bathroom scales that tell me to lay off the pasta for a while, weather reports that extend into the middle of next week, and regular doctor’s checkups that make sure I’m not missing anything crucial to my health.

The next day the crowd that was left behind realized that there had been only one boat, and that Jesus had not gotten into it with his disciples. They had seen them go off without him. By now boats from Tiberias had pulled up near where they had eaten the bread blessed by the Master.

The orderly grid of streets in Chicago did not prepare me for the chaotic streets and signage that I encountered in a trip to Italy with my brothers. In the van I was designated the interpreter of road signs as we sought to find our way to the beautiful medieval city of Sienna.

Each 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. Not that Jesus has anything against earning a living and feeding ourselves and our families.

Mark Twain wrote, “I have known many troubles in my life, most of which never happened.” I know about such troubles, too. These are the troubles looming just out in the future that occupy my mind in unguarded moments throughout the day or especially as I try to drift off to sleep.

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

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.