Blog Archives - PASTOR JOSE LUIS LA TORRE CUADROS

Bread from Heaven. John 6, 24-35

7/31/2015

They said to Jesus: “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat. ’” 32 Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
The crowd was satisfied with the bread and demanded to continue being fed by Jesus. But Jesus called them to look for other bread, the bread that endures for eternal life. Jesus is this bread, and everybody needs to eat this bread. In the gospel of John what we call miracles are called “signs”, because they pointed toward a spiritual truth. In this case to move the people from the concerns for the material food to the reality that we need more than bread to live. We need the bread of heaven; we need to be spiritually nurtured by God through Jesus.
The people needs to move from the limited understanding of the acts of God to a new dimension of understanding of God´s presence in the world.
God is not any more a memory from the past. The promises of the past to Israel are fulfilled now in the ministry of Jesus. They need to be curious they need to explore beyond the limits of their reason and tradition and see that the real exodus is now taking place. It is the exodus from the slavery of sin into the new promise land of freedom called the Kingdom of God.
The people needed to discover that the real Promised Land still waits to receive the people of God in exodus from the slavery of sin. But during this exodus they need to be fed, and now the new manna is the presence of Christ in their lives: “For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
When the crowd listened to that statement they asked Jesus: “Sir, give us this bread always.”
I think that this demand needs to be central in our life. We need to be hungry for the bread from heaven. We need to ask Jesus daily the same that the crowd asked that day: “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Because we are people in a pilgrimage, we are experiencing the exodus again, and this exodus is not easy. Like the character of the Maze Runner movie, we need to remember that to be imprisoned inside the maze is not our real home; our home is outside the walls. We need to remember that this world and all what we have here is not all, that we have more, that there is more in our life than what we see around us. We need to remember that the mystery of God is here and in us, living in the presence of the Holy Spirit and making us remember what we need to ask day after day: “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Yes, always. Because without this bread we cannot live an authentic life! Because without this bread we cannot have the strength to resist the temptations, because without this bread we cannot find the power of the Son of God acting and leading us in our exodus.
I invite you to pray these words every day, to ask for the living presence of God transforming you daily with the energy and strength of the bread of heaven. You can pray at home, or when driving or in a break during the day these simple and powerful words: “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Because the answer will always be the same, Jesus said to the people that asked for the heavenly bread: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
What a wonderful and powerful answer!
What a great way to go through our daily journey of faith! Our hunger and thirst can be satisfied in Christ. We have a place with Christ, we don’t need to be lost, or imprisoned in a labyrinth of doubts and fears. We have in Christ the answer to our last concerns and ultimate questions of life and existence.
Now we can walk with him, now we can see that it does not matter how long the journey is, because we will be sustained and protected during the whole journey and this exodus is a way to freedom.
We can give thanks to God in Christ, for this reason, every day and rejoice in God´s mercy.
The same way that Jesus invited the people to penetrate beyond the superficial material food, we are invited to see beyond our limits and frustrations, dreams and nightmares, and just trust that the grace of God acting in Christ is healing us and empowering us to continue the journey day after day.

Enjoy the Journey Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

7/25/2015

It is summer time, vacation time, and we need to meditate about the importance of finding moments of peace and solitude with God. We should learn not only to make plans to travel to enjoy our favorite thematic park or attractions, but also we need to make plans to have our own vacation with God and time with Jesus.
Ours is a faith in a person: Jesus, the Son of God.
If we need to cultivate our friendships and to know more about our significant others, in the same way we need to cultivate our time and develop more deeply our relationship with God through one more deeply and intense relationship with the one who is the way to God: Jesus.
For this reason, I invite you today to plan to have not only a vacation with your spouse, children or friends, but also to make plans to have a vacation with Christ, a Sabbath with Jesus.
It is not a bad idea to have a break and to have time off just to rest in Christ. The reading of the Gospel today says that Jesus said to his disciples:
“Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.”
I remember many conversations with “churchy” and “un-churchy” people about the need for rest, retreat, solitude and renewal.
Everybody agrees that those are great words, ideas and desires, but that it is very difficult to find time to practice them unless you are already planning to retire.
The fact is that our vacation time can also be exhausting (and everybody here can recognize that) and many times when we are back from vacations we feel that we are more tired than when we started our vacation time because we were traveling a lot, practicing sports, visiting new places. We are really busy in our activities that when we fare finally back home we do not have the energy to do anything else and then we remember that we need to go back to work again on Monday.
The intensity of our daily routine can be exhausting, the same way that the Gospel says:
“Many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.”
I think these words of Jesus are a clear description of the lives of many people today. But imagine if all this business reshapes us in a way that we become too busy to come on Sunday and break the communion bread together? Imagine what could happen in our spirituality if we are too tired to drive to worship, or too tired to pray or read the Bible?
The Gospel highlights that we need to remember that gathering as a faith community to rest from our intense daily routine and partake a common meal as children of God is an important part of our life together
That is why Jesus invited his disciples to look for a place of refuge and time in solitude and “they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.”
It is important that you create a time to be with God in solitude. It is important that you enjoy your breaks or your Sabbath as much as you can, because the challenges of the daily life, your daily routine and the people around you will come back very soon.
Imagine the situation, Jesus and the disciples have a place in mind to enjoy time together, but suddenly when they arrive at that place they find a multitude waiting for them with a lot of petitions and urgencies.
My mother used to say: “It does not matter wherever you plan to runaway, the problems will always find a way to meet you there”.
You can make plans but the rhythm of today´s life always conspires against you, the problems will follow you by e-mail, text messages, phone calls, Facebook posts, Twitter, etc. Today it is almost impossible to avoid being observed, followed, or tagged in pictures, messages or posts. Everybody knows where we are going and what we are doing. You do not need to be a celebrity to be tagged in a picture; any of your friends or relatives will tag you. For that reason, we are always busy trying to know who is following us.
Jesus lived in a time without social media, but he could not avoid the multitudes neither could have time in solitude with his disciples. “It does not matter wherever you plan to runaway, the problems will always find a way to meet you there”.

How can we rest in this situation?
The disciples and Jesus rested enjoying a walk together; their journey was their Sabbath.

Because a great crowd of people in need arrived before them at the place that they planned to use for their retreat, Jesus and his disciples could not enjoy their time in solitude there, but they had the opportunity to enjoy traveling together to that destination.

The story shows us that the Sabbath can happen during the journey or maybe that the Sabbath can be the journey.
Our Sabbath is a time to refresh our love and compassion. Because Jesus is the incarnate love and compassion of God, our time with Jesus will make us receivers of God´s love and compassion and also will prepare us to be givers of these love and compassion.
We are challenged to trust that the renewal and the time in solitude with God could happen during the journey and not only at the final destination.
For this reason is important to enjoy the journey. Many times we are so focused on the destination that we don’t have the opportunity to enjoy the journey. Many times we believe that the real transformation and joy in our life will take place at the end of the journey (when we finally will retire), but the reality is that the best part of the entire Sabbath with Jesus always takes place during the journey.
I invite for this reason to enjoy the journey and to see it as the place to have a Sabbath with Christ, living in him, because he is the way, and the destination waiting always for each one of us.