"I am the living bread that came down from heaven."
The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081124.cfm
Lord God, whose Son left us,
in the Sacrament of his Body,
food for the journey,
mercifully grant that, strengthened by it,
our brother (sister) may come
to the eternal table of Christ.
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
(Closing Prayer: Rite of Christian funerals)
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There is a new movie out with an interesting scenario. It concerns the 1969 Apollo 11 journey launched to put the first human being on the surface of the moon. One may have wondered, if it is successful, will such an unprecedented scientific accomplishment be convincing? Will people truly believe that men have landed on the surface of this enormous “rock” in the sky? What if something goes wrong after the launch far out beyond the earth, will the government be labeled with egg on their face having built up confidence with people around the world in some embarrassing effort to dupe the public?
A backup plan was needed. What if we stage a fake landing in a mock studio, record it as if it were real, then play that if the original effort goes south? Well, while a few may still believe the moon landing was filmed in a Hollywood movie studio the truth is that we have been there several times. Apollo 11 was impressively successful. No such backup was ever recorded by the government, but the scenario is interesting – what if it isn’t true and we've fooled the public? (Spoiler alert. You'll have to see how the movie turns out.)
As we journey through the Gospel of John
chapter six, this Sunday we hear Jesus getting more and more to the point: I
am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will
live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my
flesh.
Was Jesus just speaking metaphorically? Was he trying to con those around him for
some deceptive reason? Was he simply out
of his mind? Some thought so but no; the
bread Jesus give is life for the world and food for the journey we walk in this
life. Like the moon landing, as nearly
unbelievable as it may sound but true, the bread that Jesus give is even more true, to
eternal life.
Mysterious and in the realm of faith yes, but here Jesus asks us to put on a new mind with new faith based eyes; a new understanding of reality. Truth is these are extraordinary claims that Jesus is making about himself. He invites us, and his town folk who question his validity since they grew up with him, to stretch themselves; to accept and believe in what he is saying. That, like the manna God gave in the desert, he now gives this new manna, that of his Son, to be our bread of life. Jesus is divine, from heaven. If we do not believe that, then to believe the Eucharist is his true presence would be crazy. No human being in their right mind would say such a thing. So, we need this food to survive.
Likewise, in the first reading we hear of the prophet Elijah on the verge of despair who escaped to the desert in fear of his life after he killed the pagan prophets of Baal, . He alone remains alive among the prophets, and he has reached his limit or so he imagines. Elijah relinquishes all his prophetic power and just wants to die. But God intervenes through his angel and provides for Elijah, food and water to drink, for his continued journey. In the same way, so does Jesus provide food for our journey.
To our Catholic ears we hear an allusion to the Eucharist – the sacred Body and Blood of Christ. However, to those of Jesus’ time, what they heard was scandalous, blasphemous, in fact repulsive on the part of Jesus – eat his flesh? He calls us to not only put our faith in him with implicit trust and loyalty, but also in the bread he will give that will provide eternal food.
To help us understand, John makes an
important connection with the Old Testament. The people grumbled about
Jesus. So too did the early Hebrew
people in the desert complain about thirst and mutter to Moses about
starvation. Moses turned to God with
whom he had a personal relationship and God, from heaven, provided for them;
manna from heaven, bread that sustained them on their continued journey.
Jesus who is God and comes from God (from
heaven) like the manna now provides himself as the food – “bread from heaven to
eat.” While it is faith in him, it is also something more tangible, concrete,
and substantial.
The Eucharist is the place we go, the food we
literally eat, for our journey. There we
find a real time encounter with the risen Lord in our midst and the people of
God, our brothers and sisters in the faith, who are made into a community by
Christ which lives in and through us.
Does this scandalize us? Does it reach the boundaries of our faith - too much to take seriously?
All we may see and become disturbed by is the sin of the Church – the human dimension in constant need of reform. If all we see is scandal, arrogant leadership, poor pastors and abusive power, then we may as well despair like Elijah. But we forget the divine presence in the Church which makes it Holy. We don’t see beyond wounded humanity but we must to embrace Jesus' truth.
John’s Gospel invites us today to look beyond
and look into the fullness of who Jesus is: God from God, light from light,
true God from true God. If we do that,
then Jesus and living in him and through him in his Church is the bread that
provides power to “live forever.”
We can hear Jesus say to us:
“Open your minds,
your hearts to a fuller reality beyond this one. This bread is true; it is me wanting to
encounter you as much as you desire to meet me. “
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