Lesson from Fr. Paulus | The Bread of Life Is Truth, Not Stuff

​If we only memorized one verse from the Bible, I would recommend the one that we heard this Sunday: "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God."

If we happened to live 1,000 years ago, I would probably recommend a different verse.

But we live now. And right now, the biggest obstacle to our happiness and holiness is our culture's commercialist mentality.

The commercialist mentality says that all our problems can be solved by stuff, by bread. The commercialist mentality is the attitude encouraged by the commercials, advertisements, and billboards that we run into a hundred times a day, every day. The commercialist mentality says that if we have the right bank account, the right house, the right vacation spot, the right outfits, the right software, and the right job, everything will be all right.

All of these material things, all these loaves of bread, are good. They are part of this wonderful creation that God has generously given to us.

But they are not enough. They are necessary, but insufficient. They cannot solve our most important problems.

Because the human soul is much greater than a machine. We need something much greater than fuel and axel grease to make our lives run smoothly. We need truth.

We need to know and follow the truth about who we are and what we were created for. We need to drink in the truth that we are loved by God, personally, and that we are called to love him in return, with all the power and creativity of our being.

The deepest part of our soul is hungering not for bread, but for the Word of God, Jesus Christ, who is himself incarnate Truth and Love.