Jesus the Bread of Life
John the Evangelist uses Chapter 6 to bring home to his readers this important truth that Jesus is the Bread of Life. This chapter began with Jesus’ compassion for the crowds resulting with the great miracle of the multiplication of loaves and fishes. But Jesus didn’t let this miracle pass on without a deeper truth. Jesus uses this satisfaction of human hunger to lead to a deeper ‘spiritual hunger’. Jesus had more to offer! Material bread only satisfies one momentarily. There is more to just living on the level of the physical. Eternal life is our point of arrival. To get there, we need more than just the ‘manna’ of old. Jesus promises the crowds that HE is the BREAD of LIFE.
‘Body’ meant the ENTIRE PERSON, not just a few cells, tissue, organs or systems. ‘Blood’ meant the very ‘PRINCIPLE OF LIFE, not just red or white blood corpuscles. So, when Jesus assures the crowd of listeners, “This is my BODY, my BLOOD, given up for you”, what is he really saying? Jesus is encapsulating his entire life – the totality of his being – as a self-giving LOVE that is offered to nourish our lives on this spiritual journey. Jesus gives us REAL FOOD and REAL DRINK and invited his followers to “Do this in MEMORY of Me!”
In the sacrament of the Eucharist, we draw life from Jesus’ body and blood. We come together around the table of the Lord to enact this great ‘MEMORY’. One great spiritual teacher summed up the Eucharist in these words, “When we eat material food, it becomes us. When we eat spiritual food, we become it.”
Carlo Acutis, the latest to-be-canonized-saint of this Millenium rightly said, “The Eucharist is my sure highway to heaven!” The Eucharist is our sacrament of transformation. Receiving Jesus in this sacrament transforms us to share in the life and the nature of God himself. But sadly, we can fall into the trap of the ‘religious leaders’ of Jesus’ time who only saw the literal meaning of body and blood and found it repugnant as the law forbade it (Lev 17:10-11).
In the daily wilderness of our lives, Jesus Christ comes to nourish us with his life-giving Body and Blood. We are blessed at every Eucharist, we can ‘consume’ his ‘memory’ as our food for our daily journey and a sure highway to heaven!
Fr Glenford Lowe
