"I am the living bread come down from heaven"
John 6: 51 - 58
If there is any food which has been a universal experience for
all humanity over the past thousands of years, I think it would be bread. In some way, shape and form countless
cultures have formed in some manner a food that we refer to as bread. From the ancient Egyptians to our own day of
various forms of “designer” bread filled with all sorts of grains and seeds and
other fruits and berries, we all enjoy this universal source of food, gluten
free or not.
One local well known bakery even sells bread named “Super Food”
which is filled with all sorts of healthy grains in a very delicious
combination. (It's great toasted by the
way.) Yet, the bread we reflect on today has far more benefits than even the
most powerful of “super foods.”
If we look carefully at our readings on this beautiful feast of
the Body and Blood of Christ we will hear of bread. The first reading from Deuteronomy begins
with Moses address to the people and the word, “Remember.” Later we hear this emphasized with the
phrase, “Do not forget.” Moses reminds
the people of the super food God gave them in the desert; the “manna” bread
like substance which appeared on the desert floor in a time of their great
hunger and sustained them for the rest of their journey to the promised land.
That bread became a sign for the people and Moses reminds them
that God provided for them in their need not just because they were hungry but
to test their faith and loyalty. To, “.
. . find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments . .
. in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live . . .” That event and God’s constant care for them
is something to commit to their collective memory. This test of their personal
connection with the Lord who would save and sustain them was all part of their
formation and their understanding of who God was for them. This bread became a sign
of life that God had given; bread from heaven to satisfy their hunger.
That story is part of our collective memory as well. We remember what was done for our ancestors
and we draw a collective spirit of thankfulness for God’s care of them and his
promise to do the same for us.
If we move to the Gospel we hear Jesus say: “I am the living
bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; .
. .” Jesus makes himself to be bread –
food for life, eternal life. Like the manna from heaven, this living bread is
beyond just food that satisfies physical hunger but is rather a super food that
provides eternal life. Every time, then,
as Moses spoke to his people in the desert, we “remember” what God has done for
us through his Son who gave us himself to be food, super food: “Whoever eats my
flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I
in him . . .”
This is a great sacramental mystery – the Eucharist – which we
Catholics truly believe to be not a symbol, some sort of reminder or recall of
a meal eaten with Jesus 20 centuries ago like one might remember a birthday
party or family picnic. But this IS a
Person and every time we consume, literally eat and drink, this Person, we
share in his risen life. So, no we are
not cannibals as the early Christians were unfairly labeled by pagan Roman
Emperors and suspicious other non-Christians.
In the mysterious work of God, we encounter the risen Lord truly present
to us in a substantive way behind the signs of bread and wine. If that isn’t “super food” what would be?
This theme of memory runs through not only the readings this
Feast but is a constant reminder to us in our sacramental life and in
particular the celebration of our Mass. In the gathering of God’s people,
albeit in a very different way for the present moment, we are still
collectively reminded that we do so because of what God has done for us.
We gather together as one family in the Lord who becomes that
food from heaven for our journey through this life. The unity the Eucharist creates among us is
meant to not stop in Church. While
everything is fine for an hour, where do we go afterwards? Maybe an even more essential question may be,
why do we come?
One of the best reasons might be to come because I am hungry
and I need to be fed. We begin the Mass
with the sign of the cross and then right off the bat, we express our hunger
for forgiveness and mercy. We “recall
our sins.” It is either a downer to
begin so negatively as we stress where we have strayed or it is an expression
of our need for God – our hunger before him.
We carry that farther as we express “Lord have mercy.” Lord, I am hungry and need to be fed by your
mercy. Only then can we enter this great
mystery of God’s mercy for us. While our
memory recalls God’s great mercy to his people, his repeated efforts to forgive
and win back those who have strayed, and in Jesus we see God’s mercy
personified as he goes out to the forgotten and the cast aside.
To satisfy hunger we eat food and we drink. As the Mass moves we now are fed by the word
of God – the Scriptures. It was the word
of God to the ancient Hebrews, the sacred Torah that fed them now and continues
to be the focal point of their worship. Those five books of the Sacred Law of
God remain an essential reminder of God’s Covenant with his people.
Then, Jesus came as God’s word made flesh. What God says brings confidence and hope.
This is a time to remember what God did and we are given confidence that he
continues to do for us today. So, the
word is a living word, not just a book of ancient history.
We move then to more food - from the living word on paper to
the living word of person. Bread and wine come first as a symbol and then
become sign. It is the symbol of our
lives, offered to the Father to be changed.
So, when the priest raises the bread and wine in prayer: “Blessed are
you Lord God of all creation . . .” he offers at the same time the people
gathered and himself. And as the priest calls upon the Holy Spirit what was
once only a symbol now becomes a sign. A
true sign of God’s presence as we remember the words spoken by his Word among
us: “This is my Body . . . This is my Blood.”
What was given as bread is now transformed into super food for us – the
very life and presence of the risen one come to us as living bread. So we come
because we are hungry for Christ himself and we need to be fed with Word and
Sacrament.
Yet, the Mass is not a private devotion. It is the family of God gathered to actively
and consciously participate. At the Last Supper he washed the feet of his
Apostles. As he was about to lay down
his life for those he loved, he washes their feet as a sign they will never
forget to imitate. No great fanfare, no
marching bands, no inspiring choir just the act of a slave as God humbled
himself in a stark action that surely made an indelible impression on those
gathered that night. “As I have done so
you must do . . .” A life of self-sacrificial service to others, after our
Lord’s example, is the call of living out the Holy Eucharist.
Called to lay our lives, to sacrifice for the common good and
for the good of others, we live out the meaning of this super food. Jesus doesn’t come for me alone but for US in
a way that brings about a bond of unity with him and with others through this
bread from heaven. This encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist is a
transformative moment for us.
While the theologians, St. Thomas Aquinas in particular in the
14th century, coined the term: “Transubstantiation” to explain the real
presence of Christ in the Eucharist if it only remains on a shelf of books in
some theological text, then we miss the whole point of Jesus’ example. The “full, active and conscious
participation” the Second Vatican Council called for in the celebration of Mass
goes well beyond the walls of the Church – to the world outside. I should hunger to be fully, consciously and
actively involved in the life of Christ himself.
So “remember” but let us remember this great act of divine love
and with humble hearts, share in the super food which has the power to change
us to conform more to his own example.
“Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord”
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