Sustenance

[A reflection on today's readings for Mass, which one may find here.]

Even in our gluten-conscious society, bread still has a connotation of sustenance, something that holds life together, undergirds it, keeps it whole and healthy. It comes in many forms, but a good bread will provide energy for doing what needs to be done, protein to build up and repair, lipids for pretty much the same thing, and vitamins and minerals to keep the machinery of life well oiled (note, I said, good bread).

Beyond the physical needs that physical bread can supply, we need to consider the metaphysical needs of the person. What sustains the spirit? What keeps us going day in and day out beyond what physical sustenance can provide? We turn to many things in our environment, enrichment activities like meditation, yoga, exercise, travel, reading, entertainment, camaraderie, or we may take a darker turn with substance abuse, obsessive behaviours, carnal indulgence (that includes food and rest/sloth, not just sexual intimacy). While these can stave off boredom, ennui, or apathy, they are in the end unfulfilling, or in the case of the darker pursuits, they can hollow one out into a shell, having taken much more than they could ever supply.

Both the Old Testament lesson from Exodus and the reading from St. John's Gospel bear witness to a truth about sustenance. Even physical sustenance ultimately comes from God, but metaphysical sustenance, what gives us the ultimate joy, not only comes from God, but IS God. Jesus said that He was the Bread of Life, that trusting in His Word and Teaching leads to Eternal Life. God not only is the source of Life, He is truly Life, truly our Daily Bread, and it is only in bringing Him into our selves, to allow the Divine Perichoresis, the indwelling of God in our souls to the transformation of our lives, that we partake in Eternal Life, not only in this world, but after the Resurrection in the life of the world to come.

Everything depletes, but God is limitless, and in dwelling in God and God dwelling in us can we partake in that limitlessness.