Yesterday and today’s Gospel readings from John are laying the groundwork for Jesus’ Bread of Life discourse. In yesterday’s account, Jesus shared with the people who gathered about him, the people who had already received the miraculous multiplication of bread, that they were not to “work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life” and Jesus also shared that they were to “believe in the one [God] sent” (see Jn 6:27-29).
In today’s account, Jesus asserted that he was even greater than Moses. The people, who believed that Moses gave them bread from heaven, asked Jesus for a similar sign, to prove he was who he said he was. Jesus reminded them first and foremost that his Father, not Moses, had given them the bread from heaven, and also as he often did, met their request but built upon it: “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (Jn 6:32-33).
Certainly, this offer is appealing, and so the people not only want some of this bread also, they want an endless supply. Jesus welcomes the opportunity to offer them what they desire, in the very depths of their souls but unaware: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (Jn 6:35).
Jesus encouraged his listeners to pursue the food that “endures for eternal life” to believe in the one his Father sent, then he shared how his Father gave them the true bread from heaven, “for the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Jesus is the one his listeners are to build their relationship with, for he is the very presence of God in their midst. Jesus is the promise of eternal life. Jesus is the one sent by his Father to give life to the world. Jesus became one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity. Jesus is the bread of life!
We are a living craving, hunger, and desire to be one with God and each other, and this is true for the atheist and the believer alike. That which God has created, he has created good, but the material and finite will not fulfill us. We, in short order, experience the limitations of the finite and seek something more. This is how we are wired, because ultimately, our deepest hunger, craving, and desire, is that which we seek to fulfill us, that which is eternal. The only One to satisfy our eternal hunger is the bread of life, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Do we believe this to be true? Do we believe that Jesus is the bread of life, that he is the source and sustenance, the very foundation of our being and existence?
If we have been caught up: in the business of life, in mere existence or survival mode of the day-to-day, or stuck in our sin, addiction, wounds, or disillusionment, or if we feel like we are just running on empty. If we have just taken this reality for granted, then let us seek to, “believe in the one who God sent”, commit or recommit our selves, our very life, to the one who is our source and sustainer, Jesus, the Bread of Life. When we encounter Jesus in his glorified body, present in the consecrated host, we encounter our Savior, the bread of everlasting life who will satisfy our deepest hunger and thirst.
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Photo: Print of the painting: “Christ the Saviour” by Vicente Juan Masip hanging in the sacristy in the chapel of St. Mary of the Lake.
Spiritual Stepping Stones