When Did He Get Here?

(a homily)

"Teacher, when did you get here?" the crowd asked. It seems the evangelist John meant to imply that the people were dumbfounded that Jesus had made it to the other side of the lake during the night, alone, without a boat. Even more, they were upset that he had gone on his way because their meal for the day left with him. But Jesus looks through their questions. He doesn't bother addressing their intrigue, but instead leads them to consider deeper things than transportation and dinner: food that does not perish, everlasting food, the Son of Man's food; this they are to look and work for. We are to look and work for.

But what is our work? We are very much like the crowd, going to church, going to various places, looking for Jesus, looking for something. Christ is there, but I'm sure at times we wonder to ourselves, When did he get here? We recognize there is work for us to do, work for imperishable food, but what is it? (Manna, Exodus 16.) And what is imperishable food, anyway? Such a thing seems inconsiderate to imagine in a world plagued by hunger, cruel to people suffering from the havoc wrought by unjust economic systems and the greed of others.

And yet, perhaps we get a glimpse of the work of the Jesus of John's Gospel in the action of St. Stephen. Stephen, who's speech and story we will hear in the following days, spoke in the Spirit to the people with great wisdom. And what was his work, his task that occasioned great wonders and signs? Waiting tables and distributing food to widows. (Now, at the same time, the twelve apostles were going about their work of prayer and teaching--this too is a work for imperishable food.)

So, what is our work? To believe. If we could, in English, make "faith" a verb, "to faith." (We wouldn't have such a problem in Greek.) Our work is to give our whole selves to the one God sent, Jesus Christ. It is to allow his word to cut through our questions, so that we might be given a new petition, to say with the psalmist, "Remove from me the way of falsehood, the way of truth I have chosen." Our work is to pray, to feed on the meal Christ gives, to seek justice for the poor and the widows and the orphans, to create a place in which the apostles' teaching can be received. People will ask, "When did Jesus get here?" and we will be able to say, "We are working for an answer."

(Acts 6:8-15; Psalm 119:23-24, 26-27, 29-30; John 6:22-29)