GOSPEL READING:
John 6:51-5851 "I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh." 52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" 53 So Jesus said to them, ", truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; 54 he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever."
Meditation: What is the bread of life which Jesus
offers to all who believe in him? It is first of all the life of
God himself - life which sustains us not only now in this age but
also in the age to come. The Rabbis said that the generation
in the wilderness have no part in the life to come. In the
Book of Numbers it is recorded that the people who refused to
brave the dangers of the promised land were condemned to wander in
the wilderness until they died. The Rabbis believed that the
father who missed the promised land also missed the life to come.
God sustained the Israelites in the wilderness with manna from
heaven. This bread foreshadowed the true heavenly bread which
Jesus would offer his followers.
Jesus is the "bread of life"
Jesus makes a claim only God can make: He is the true bread of
heaven that can satisfy the deepest hunger we experience.
The manna from heaven prefigured the superabundance of the unique
bread of the Eucharist or Lord's Supper which Jesus gave to his
disciples on the eve of his sacrifice. The manna in the wilderness
sustained the Israelites on their journey to the Promised Land. It
could not produce eternal life for the Israelites. The bread which
Jesus offers his disciples sustains us not only on our journey to
the heavenly paradise, it gives us the abundant supernatural life
of God which sustains us for all eternity.
The food that makes us live forever
Jesus chose the time of the Jewish Feast of Passover to fulfill
what he had announced at Capernaum - giving his disciples his body
and his blood as the true bread of heaven. Jesus' passing over to
his Father by his death and resurrection - the new passover - is
anticipated in the Last Supper and celebrated in the Eucharist or
Lord's Supper, which fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates
the final Passover of the church in the glory of God's kingdom.
When the Lord Jesus commands his disciples to eat his flesh and
drink his blood, he invites us to take his life into the very
center of our being. That life which he offers is the very life of
God himself.
Do you hunger for the "bread of life"?
Jesus offers us the abundant supernatural life of heaven itself -
but we can miss it or even refuse it. To refuse Jesus is to refuse
eternal life, unending life with the Heavenly Father. To accept
Jesus as the bread of heaven is not only life and
spiritual nourishment for this world but glory in the world to
come.
When we receive from the Lord's table we unite ourselves to Jesus
Christ, who makes us sharers in his body and blood and partakers
of his divine life. Ignatius of Antioch (35-107
A.D.) calls it the "one bread that provides the medicine
of immortality, the antidote for death, and the food that makes us
live for ever in Jesus Christ" (Ad Eph. 20,2).
This supernatural food is healing for both body and soul and
strength for our journey heavenward.
When you approach the Table of the Lord, what do you expect to
receive? Healing, pardon, comfort, and rest for your soul? The
Lord has much more for us, more than we can ask or imagine. The
principal fruit of receiving the Eucharist or Lord's Supper is an
intimate union with Christ. As bodily nourishment restores lost
strength, so the Eucharist strengthens us in charity and enables
us to break with disordered attachments to creatures and to be
more firmly rooted in the love of Christ. Do you hunger for the
"bread of life"?
Lord Jesus, you nourish and sustain us with your very own presence and life-giving word. You are the bread of life - the heavenly food that sustains us now and that produces everlasting life within us. May I always hunger for you and be satisfied in you alone.
Psalm 147:12-15,19-20
12 Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!
13 For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your sons within you.
14 He makes peace in your borders; he fills you with the finest of the wheat.
15 He sends forth his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.
19 He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and ordinances to Israel.
20 He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his ordinances. Praise the LORD!
Daily Quote from the Early Church Fathers: Let faith confirm you, by Cyril of Jerusalem, 315-386 A.D.
"Failing to understand his words spiritually, [the Jews] were offended and drew back, thinking that the Savior was urging them to cannibalism. Then again in the old covenant there was the showbread. But that, since it belonged to the old covenant, has come to an end. In the new covenant there are the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation, which sanctify body and soul. For as bread corresponds to the body, so the Word is appropriate to the soul. So do not think of them as mere bread and wine. In accordance with the Lord's declaration, they are body and blood. And if our senses suggests otherwise, let faith confirm you. Do not judge the issue on the basis of taste, but on the basis of faith be assured beyond all doubt that you have been allowed to receive the body and blood of Christ. (excerpt from MYSTAGOGICAL LECTURES 4.4-6)
