"I will now rain down bread from heaven for you"

John 6: 24-35

The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/080424.cfm

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Draw near to your servants O Lord, 

and answer their prayers with unceasing kindness,

that, for those who glory in you as their Creator and guide,

you may restore what you have created

and keep safe what you have restored.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

 who lives and reigns with you in the unity

of the Holy Spirit,  God for ever and ever. 

(Collect of Sunday)

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Work, love, and food.  Those three words pretty much cover the human experience.  The word love could easily be expanded to include our faith life since our faith should color and form how we love one another in many human expressions from common curtesy and respect for others to the intimacy found in marriage.

But looking at these three basic expressions of human existence, it’s surprising to consider how much of our lives revolve around food.  Consider how at every gathering of friends and family you have food. Everything from a few snacks to an entire buffet is commonly available.  The ever popular and convenient “potluck dinners” produce more than is needed. Our summertime barbeques and more formal settings. In such events we not only enjoy the food that is served but even more importantly, share a new bond in that very human, and very Biblical experience.

So much of Jesus’ ministry centered on a meal, feeding hungry crowds as we heard last Sunday, Jesus controversial banquets in the homes of Pharisees and tax collectors, requesting to share a meal with Zacchaeus the tax collector, and of course what is now known as his last supper. How we remember Jesus’ best is through a sacred meal where he himself becomes food for us.

Our first reading from Exodus conveys a kind never happy spoiled children feeling. Here the Israelite community complains that Moses duped them.  He led them away from slavery in Egypt to trust that God had chosen them.  The elders decide they were deceived and now led into the wilderness where there is no food or water or anything.  What have you done, Moses?  Why here? In so doing, they grumble against God.

What does God do with them?  He feeds them, with “bread” literally from the skies above. And even provides protein, quail, for them to eat.  This bread, clearly foreshadows the bread Jesus would offer, sustains them along their journey.  They see the substance on the desert floor every day and though mysterious, they eat and are satisfied.  A manna, literally meaning as they questioned: “What is this?” Moses assures them that despite their ungratefulness, God does not punish but he feeds them.

This Sunday continues the unfolding of the bread of life discourse in John. His version of Jesus teaching on the reality of the true presence in the Eucharist and in Christ, a new manna given by God but greater than anything offered in the desert. is the second Gospel in a series from the Gospel according to John. 

Jesus offers himself as that new “bread from heaven” and “bread of life” that he so beautifully speaks of today. Perhaps the most crucial line in the Gospel, however, comes from those who followed Jesus to the other side of the lake: “Sir, give us this bread always.”

Although our Gospel may not refer to the Eucharist specifically as such, John leads us to tune our hearing to the implication Jesus now makes to his real presence in the Eucharist.  The crowd still hungers - feed us always with this bread – and Jesus invites them to embrace him as the source of this forever food, this super manna from heaven. That longing is satisfied in what Jesus can only give.  For we are not just creatures who eat, we have a deep spiritual appetite that is satisfied only by God’s food.

In the celebration of the Mass so common to those who regularly attend we find this bread Jesus promised to give.  In the readings we hear his word and as common bread and wine are brought forward, the people’s gift, the Spirit transforms them to be Christ present who then feeds us as Holy Communion is distributed.  Our Catholic Mass is a memorial of how far Christ’s love has gone to save us and to feed us along this journey we call life.

So do we too ask “what is this” as the grumbling Israelites? Do we truly understand who is present to us in the Eucharist?

How do we see this as a gift in our liturgy? This food is a gift that is given.  Jesus fed the hungry thousands through compassion for them. But, as he points out when they continue to search for him, our real desire is not for more material food but for he who is bread from heaven. We come to receive it from the one who offers it to us.  Eucharistic ministers, for example, gather around to receive from the priest.  They don’t just grab the hosts on the altar, they wait to receive them then with the priests and deacon if there is one, they go down to the general people to give this bread of life.

So, the key is how we receive that gift which is not a “thing” but a person – the risen Lord of our life.  What are we thinking as we come forward to receive?  What do we say and what do we mean when we proclaim “Amen?”  When we return to the pew, not out to our car, do we give thanks for this mysterious and life-giving presence?  How grateful are we for the food, the person we receive?  Is it for us just routine or a living encounter with Christ Jesus? The answer to “what is this” is Jesus Christ.

As we journey through this life let us do more “thank you” than grumbling. For the God who came to save us has offered us not only an example but the gift of his mercy.  We are not alone because he is with us here and always. Bread of life and food for our life journey is Christ himself.