Scripture: Ex 16:2-4, 12-15 Eph 4:17, 20-24 Jn 6:24-35

Oliver Twist – Please sir, I want some more!

• There is still a desperate plea of hungry children around the world
• Six million children are food deprived in the U.S alone

After the Multiplcation of the lovaes – the crowd looks for Jesus

• They want something more
• Jesus senses their hungers are deeper than food
• Jesus knows that we have deeper hungers as well

We were shocked by Simone Biles’ decision

• Chose to step away from Olympic Competition
• Lost the sense of where she was on the vault – She got twisted
• Felt as if she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders
• Realized that there was something more than gymnastics Olympic medals or achievements
• We can achieve all kinds of wonderful things – possess financial treasures – stuff
• It may fail to satisfy our inner hungers

St Mother Theresa of Calcutta

• Says Americans are among some of the hungriest people in the world
• Many hunger to beloved for who they are – not what they do
• Simone Biles was a human being before she was an Olympic champion
• Carries the weight of being a victim of sexual abuse and high expectations of others
• Weight became unbearable – putting her life in peril
• Needed to let people know she was vulnerable – struggling and hurting
• Needed to let go

Most Decorated Olympian – Michael Phelps’ story

• Struggled with depression
• Emphasizes with Simone’s struggle
• Created Foundation for athletes to share their mental health struggles

In The Desert

• God directed hungry people to gather each day to gather just enough manna
• Not to grab more than their daily bread
• Maybe we need to hang on to our achievements, stuff, appearance less tightly

We need to trust

• Trust the Lord – we don’t need to prove anything to Him
• We need to trust that the Lord will place people into our lives who will love us no matter
  what!
• We need to trust that the Lord will give us the grace to be OK with our weaknesses.
• We are all so much alike. We hunger to be loved and accepted for who we are and not for what we do! We all need Jesus so very much, day by day by day by day! Jesus is our Daily Bread of Life!

Let Us Pray

Here I am, Lord.. I am vulnerable. I trust that you will be my strength in my weakness. Your
grace is sufficient for me.

Let us pray with Rev Malcolm Guite:
Where to get bread? An ever-pressing question
That trembles on the lips of anxious mothers,
Bread for families, bread for all these others;
A whole world on the margin of exhaustion.
And where that hunger has been satisfied
Where to get bread? The question still returns
In our abundance something starves and yearns
We crave fulfillment, crave and are denied.
And then comes One who speaks into our needs
Who opens out the secret hopes we cherish
Whose presence calls our hidden hearts to flourish
Whose words unfold in us like living seeds
Come to me, broken, hungry, incomplete,
I Am the Bread of Life, break Me and eat.

Questions for Reflection

• What impacted you from the readings/homily?
• What was your reaction to Simone Biles decision? Have you ever had to step back and admit a vulnerability? What was that like?
• What is your deepest hunger? Have you always known it? How do you feed it?

Live Connected

Spends some quiet time with Jesus this week haring your vulnerabilities and feeding your hunger.