Coffee With God

Reflection: John 6:35-40

The crowd who followed Jesus had experienced the sign of Jesus feeding the multitude in the desert. They hailed him as a prophet; they wanted to force him to be their king, but … they preferred to remain a crowd rather than believing in him and becoming his disciples. This was an actual problem the evangelist was facing in his community when he was writing the gospel. He attempts to address the question of unbelief of numerous people in the resurrection of Jesus and in the obvious fruits of the power of the Spirit of Jesus at work within the Christian community. John is telling his community the possible reason for the unbelief: If people would not come to Jesus and would not entrust themselves to him, the reason was their failure to be open to the inspirations of the Father who sent Jesus. Only those who are open to the inspirations of the Father receive the grace to come to Jesus and to believe in him. Those who followed the “WAY” of Jesus in the early community were no more accepted in the synagogues by the Jews. They were driven away. John wants to reassure them: “Anyone who comes to me I will never drive away” (Jn 6:37). That is the invitation to come to Jesus, the living one, to gain immunity against death. Pope Francis in his reflections on the passage writes: “To come to Jesus: this might seem a generic and even a cliched spiritual exhortation. But let us try to make it concrete by asking a few questions: Today, in the files that I handled in the office, did I draw nearer to the Lord? Did I make them an occasion for speaking to him? In the persons whom I met, did I involve Jesus? Did I bring them to him in prayer? Or did I do everything while thinking only of my concerns, rejoicing only in things that went well for me and complaining about those that didn’t? In a word, did I live my day coming to the Lord, or was I simply orbiting around myself? And where am I headed? Do I seek only to make a good impression, to protect my ego, my schedule and my free time? Or do I come to the Lord? Let us allow ourselves to be challenged by these thoughts. We will be more attuned to the desire that Jesus expresses in today’s Gospel: that he lose nothing of what the Father has given him (cf. Jn 6:39). Amid so many worldly voices that make us forget the meaning of life, let us grow attuned to the will of Jesus, risen and alive. Thus we will make of our lives this day a dawn of resurrection.