From time to time in the Gospels we see Jesus do a miracle, and then try as hard as He can to persuade the person who has received the benefit of the miracle not to tell anyone about what has happened. We are often tempted to wonder why Jesus does that, especially since He certainly understands that His instruction won't be heeded and the impacted person will have to explain what has happened to him. Maybe today's Gospel reading (Jn 6: 30- 35) gives us some insight into what Jesus is doing in trying to get folks not to publicize His works. We start off the reading with people asking Jesus for a sign, for Him to do something for them. The crowd makes their request pretty clear-- they point out that their ancestors ate manna from heaven, implcitly suggesting that Jesus do something similar "so that they may see and believe." On its face, the request doesn't seem so odd, until we realize that these are some of the same people who the previous day had been part of the feeding of the 5,000. They have seen one of Jesus' greatest miracles and, the very next day, they say they need more in order to believe. They're there for the show, the miracles, the food (as Jesus says a bit earlier in chapter 6). The more that happens, the more they'll stay with Jesus as long as there is something in it for them, but when the miracles stop, when they have to believe in something beyond their eyes and their stomach, they'll be gone. So Jesus needs to make sure they don't get addicted to the demonstration of His earthly power and can move past the miracles to an understanding of who He really is and what the miracles really mean. For that reason He starts to explain to them that He is the "Bread of Life" who has come from the Father in heaven. Believe in me, He says, and you will not hunger or thirst. He is moving the crowd from the physical to the spiritual, from what seems to matter to what truly matters, from the day-to-day to the eternal. We still struggle with that transition. We want Jesus to be an earthly miracle worker, to solve our problems-- whether those are with our health, our relationships, our finances, whatever. So often in our prayers those kinds of things are what we seek, and so we should. But often we don't get healing, of money, or improved relationships. Perhaps part of the reason why that happens is the same reason that the crowd's request for additional signs was not granted by Jesus. It is those times when Jesus does not give us the signs that we seek that we have to confront the reality that He is who He says He is-- the Son of God. He has given us lots of signs, and He could give us the additional one that we seek, but He doesn't. It is the consideration of why that might be the case, and the understanding that God loves us even when He does not give us what we have sought, that we truly grow in a relationship with the Divine. We might keep that in mind the next time we "ask for a sign."