The crowd said to Jesus, ‘What signs can you do, that we may see and believe in you?’”

People are still looking for signs and wonders—religio-tainment, if you will, or what John Straubaugh called “recreational religion,” which brings TV’s values to spiritual enterprises. Yet megachurches are in retreat these days; once the charismatic (and entertaining) leader is gone, things dwindle.

Real faith is based not on signs and wonders, but on the “evidence of things unseen” (Hebrews 11:1). If we had thought of ourselves as part of the Gospel’s crowd, would we have seen and recognized the living Jesus, Son of Man, Son of God, in front of us? Would we have given up everything to follow him? We like to think we would have, but we look at our lives and find contrary evidence.

Dayenu is a catchy song sung yearly by Jews at the Passover seder. Its 15 profound verses recount how God brought the Chosen People from slavery in Egypt to building the Temple in Israel. “If he had supplied our needs in the desert for forty years and had not fed us the manna, it would have been enough! If he had fed us the manna and not given us the Shabbat (Sabbath), it would have been enough!” After each verse, the refrain is “Dayenu”—“It would have been enough!”

We really don’t need more signs and wonders. We need to look at how God has acted in our lives, individually, as communities, now and throughout the ages—and give thanks.

That’s what Eucharist is all about: giving thanks for all that God has done—and it is enough.

As Darryl Ducote’s song says, “Look beyond the bread you eat” (“Look
Beyond,” OCP)