In Western Canada, this summer of 2021 has been the summer of the parched earth. Crops have failed, lawns are burnt and trees cry out for rain. Fires have swept across the interior of British Columbia. Worse yet, we do not know what the future holds.
Or maybe we do. Climatologists say the effects of global warming will only get worse. In some places, that means flooding. In the West, it will mean drier and hotter summers. Even as our political leaders ignore the crisis, we have reason to be concerned about our future supplies of food and water.
In Last Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus fed the five thousand with five barley loaves and two fish. Now, the people go in hot pursuit of Jesus, and eventually they find him. Will he provide more food? If Jesus is close to God, he will give them more to eat.
Jesus turns the tables. “Do not work for food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” This eternal food can be had only by believing in Jesus. Jesus is vague about what it means to believe. What it does not mean is to hold certain beliefs. John’s Gospel uses variations of the world “believe” about forty times. But the noun “belief” is never used. It is always the verb.
In the previous chapter of the Gospel, Jesus tells the paralyzed man by the pool, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” The miracles would have been accomplished if the man had simply stood up. But Jesus asks more. Take up your mat and walk. Doctrines do not give life; we must act in the Spirit of Christ.
It is not enough to wait for a miracle. Nor is it enough to stand up. One must take up their mat and walk. This is believing. Jesus is God’s food for the journey. “The bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
Today the obsession with independence is killing us. “I have a right to drive a big truck and to produce abundant greenhouse gases.” “I have right to go unvaccinated even if it means other people get sick.” We forget that Jesus is our food, a food which is love for the world. Those who come to Jesus and believe in him will never be hungry or thirsty.
We live in a dry, parched land. It is a land which is increasingly without life of the body and life of the soul. Because of our lifeless souls, the land itself is lifeless. Our call is to stand up, pick up our mats and walk. It is to believe, to let Jesus live within us and to walk with him guided by his life. Doing so will not end the drought and fires. It is not magic. But when Jesus lives in our hearts, we will act for the good of others and the good of the earth. In today’s climate, that would be a miracle.
(Glen Argan writes from Edmonton, Alberta.)