Do you remember that song “Lookin’ for Love in All the Wrong Places”? That is just what Jesus told those in today’s gospel who came looking for him after being fed along with the 5000. (Jn.6:5-13) He points out they aren’t looking for him for who he is, but for the free food, the things of the world.

We all spend a lot of time and energy looking in all the wrong places for what we imagine will make us whole. We think we need security, power, status, prestige, things that can never satisfy our hungry hearts. While we are born as spiritually hungry as we are physically hungry, it takes us quite a while to recognize just what that profound yearning is. The psalmist knew and described the reality of our desire: “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for the living God.” (42:1-2a) Likewise St. Augustine concluded, “Lord, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in you.”

When we finally come to acknowledge that innate desire is a yearning for connection with God, Christ Jesus points us in the right direction, telling us he is the bread of life, the true bread from heaven sent by God to satiate our hungry hearts. So it is that “the Body of Christ, the bread of heaven” we consume in the Eucharist brings us ever more deeply into communion with God, the source and essence of all, indwelling and enfolding us with divine Love. We need look no farther.