I recently had a conversation with a father who shared with me the delight he and his wife have taken in seeing their son mature in his relationship with them. As one would expect, the son from his earliest days related to his parents as providers. After all, they worked hard to provide food, shelter, clothing, health care, education, recreation and so much more that allowed the son to grow. The father quipped that during the son’s teenage years, he and his wife felt like nothing so much as an ATM card! But as the son grew older and began to live on his own, the father saw a change. The son began to see the relationship in a new way. He expressed interest in knowing more about his parents’ work, their biographies, their aspirations for life. Everything about their relationship changed when the son related to them as more than providers. He began to value his relationship with them on a much deeper level and was enriched by it beyond the material blessings he had enjoyed. So too the parents’ life was enriched in this new relationship. That conversation came to mind as I reflected on the texts from the Gospel of John given to us for Sunday Mass over these summer months. Jesus feeds the crowd of 5,000, and they want to make him their king who will provide food to satisfy their hungry stomachs. Yet, as they seek Jesus out, he challenges them to mature in how they relate to him and to the Father. He wants to awaken in them the deep hunger they have in their souls for so much more, for eternal life, which only God can satisfy. He invites them to mature in how they relate to God as more than the provider who sustains them in this life. As these Gospel texts are proclaimed over these weeks, we are invited to mature in how we view our relationship with God. At its core must be the deeply held belief that we have been gifted with life in order to share in Jesus’ work of bringing salvation to the world, and destined to live for all eternity with God. When we do begin to mature in our relationship with God, everything changes. We begin to understand our calling to care for God’s creation in this moment of climate crisis. We are prompted to show mercy for those struggling in life. We value forgiving others, having experienced God’s forgiveness ourselves. We become free to be generous with the blessings we have received, humbled by the truth that everything we have was gifted to us and that our treasure is in heaven. Over these restful months of summer, Jesus tells us to grow up in how we relate to him and the Father, by deeply believing that we have been created to share their life for all eternity. For when we do that, everything changes.