John 6:24-35 

     Bread Alone   

     

   Do not labor for the food which perishes

   I love cosmic coincidences, however small. I am sitting in the Catskill mountains this morning oh so close to one of my all time favorite bread establishments called Bread Alone. Some of the best bread I have ever tasted and that takes in many places, including Paris. Bread is one of my favorite things.

   However, that is not really what the reading are about. It's about things that sustain us, that nourish us and how we seek them out. To Americans that message may be somewhat lost since food here is quite bountiful. Yet food is what sustains us in the barest meaning of the word.

   Growing up on Long Island, I see a different meaning to what sustains us, what we seem to strive for to sustain us and make us whole, both as a society and as individuals. One the one hand there is the 'keeping up with Jones' syndrome that seems be almost perfected ad nauseum.  On the other hand , as individuals, we have a marked propensity to obtain things that will make us happy. At least, we think they will make us happy. We think they will make us whole. This might be good for the economy but it is actually very dangerous for us as humans. We are gifted with time that is much better spent than attaining 'things'. Consciously or un-consciously it comes down to 'if I had this or that, then i will be happy. Eventually, you may realize that all of those things do not in fact make you happy.  Many a middle aged man finds himself in crisis when he realized finally that the things do not makethem whole and sadly, they still do not know what it is so they change thier lives wholesale style in hopes for that not so elusive answer.

   The answer is to seek wholeness of oneself and in the love and acknowledgment of God's never ending and abundant love. THAT is what brings true happiness. Things are distractions to our goal. I know it is difficult because we really do need some things to survive. We may have an innate knowledge that we are created good and decent and worthy so we always strive for the best of things. But I repeat, that is not what really makes us happy.