Vatican City, Aug 5, 2018 / 04:04 am
It is not wrong to be concerned with the daily necessities of life, but strengthening one's relationship with Jesus is of far greater importance, Pope Francis said in his Sunday Angelus address.
"The Lord invites us not to forget that if we need to worry about material bread, it is even more important to cultivate our relationship with him, to strengthen our faith in him, who is the 'bread of life,' come to satisfy our hunger for truth, our hunger for justice, our hunger for love," the pope said Aug. 5.
He reflected on the day's Gospel passage, in which a crowd of people are searching for Jesus and his disciples after the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. When they find him, Jesus says to the crowd: "You are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled."
In giving this answer, Jesus shows that "it is not enough that people search for him, he wants people to know him," Francis said. Jesus wants "the encounter with him to go beyond the immediate satisfaction of material needs."