On liturgical cycle B, from the Seventeenth Sunday until the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, we are reading from John 6 to deepen our understanding and appreciation of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, through Jesus’ bread of life discourse, which is his response to the crowd who tenaciously kept chasing him (John 6:22-25) upon being miraculously fed by him (John 6:1-15).
Jesus confronted the crowd because their reason to
kept following Jesus was to have their stomach filled again (John 6:26). With
this Jesus began his bread of life discourse to let them know his true purpose of
feeding was to lead those who believe in him to eternal life by offering
himself as the living bread of life (John 6:26-58).
In the Gospel Reading of the Eighteenth Sunday (John
6:24-35), Jesus commanded the crowd to work for the food that endures for
eternal life, only given by him, who was anointed by the Father with the Holy Spirit
(John 6:27). And they expressed their interest in this food for eternal life
(John 6:28). In response, Jesus told them that they must believe in him, the
one whom the Father sent, because it is He who give this food for eternal life,
as He gave manna to the Israelites during Exodus (John 6:29-33). So they
demanded Jesus to give them the bread (John 6:34), and Jesus said that he is
this bread, the bread of life, to keep those who believe and receive from
hunger and thirst (John 6:35).
But Jesus did not think that they would believe in him
and consequently the fact that he is the bread of life because they did not
believe in him even though they saw him performing a mighty sign to feed them
out of mere five loaves and two fish (John 6:36). Jesus, then, reiterated that
the bread of life for their eternal life, only given by him, is given by the
Father, who sent him, indicating that his consubstantial and hypostatic unity (homoousios/
ὁμοούσιος)
with the Father (John 10:30), and that being the bread of life means to raise
those who believe in him for eternal life, as it is the Father’s will (John
6:37-40).
The crowd did not pay attention to Jesus’ words,
besides that he is the bread of life. So they murmured how in the world Jesus
could be the bread of life from heaven, as they recognized him as Joseph’s son
whom they knew (John 6:41-42). In response, Jesus commanded them to stop
murmuring (John 6:43) and continued on with his discourse to reveal his
Christological truth as the bread of life further (John 6:44-51).
Jesus said that those whom the Father draw to him are
the ones to be raised by him for eternal life on the last day (John 6:44), and
they are the ones who learn from the Father (John 6:45; cf. Isaih 54:13; Jeremiah
31:33–34). But nobody has seen the Father, except for him (John 6:46; cf. 1:18;
7:29). So, how could people be raised for eternal life to learn from the Father
and to be drawn to Jesus by Him if nobody had seen Him?
The crowd would not have had a problem with this, if
they had heeded Jesus’ words on his consubstantial relationship with the Father
(John 6:37-44). They could have understood this Christological truth that
seeing Jesus, who was sent by the Father, with whom he is consubstantial, means
seeing the Father in him and through him (i.e. John 14:9). Thus, they could
have also realized that they could be taught by the Father if they had listened
to and believed in him.
Whether they were following him or not in his
discourse on the bread of life, Jesus continued on:
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes
has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the
desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that
one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my
flesh for the life of the world (John 6:47-51).
Jesus reiterated his precious words to the crowd (John 6:32-33,35,37-40).
Again, believing in him is an absolutely necessary
condition to be raised for eternal life by way of the bread of life. Though
both manna and the bread of life that Jesus is are sent by the Father from
heaven, the former did not endure for eternal life but the latter does. Why so?
Because the bread of life is not just the bread of life but the living bread of
life for the world.
Here, Jesus further elaborates in revealing his
Christological identity with the Eucharist that the bread of life is not just
bread but the living bread. What makes this bread living is the presence of the
Holy Spirit in this bread, namely Jesus himself, as he is sealed with the Holy
Spirit by the Father (John 6:27; cf. Luke 4:18; Isaiah 61:1; Matthew 3:16//Mark
1:10//Luke 3:22). And the living bread of life is the living flesh (σάρξ/sarx),
not dead meat (κρέας/kreas), and it is because of the presence of the Holy
Spirit in this living bread of life (i.e. John 6:63), which is Jesus’ living
flesh. Otherwise, the bread of life would not endure for eternal life.
The presence of the Holy Spirit in the bread of life,
making it the living bread of life, because it is the living flesh of Jesus,
means the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist,
which is the very living body and blood of Christ. On this truth, St. Ephrem, Doctor
of the Church, wrote:
He (Jesus) called the
bread his living body and he filled it with himself and his Spirit…. He who
eats it with faith, eats Fire and Spirit…. Take and eat this, all of you, and
eat with it the Holy Spirit. For it is truly my body and whoever eats it will
have eternal life (Sermo IV in Hebdomadam Sanctam, as quoted by St. John Paul II in his
Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 17).
In terms of the Holy Spirit in the living bread of
life, which is the living flesh of Jesus, not believing this truth grieves the
Holy Spirit, and it is reflected in the Second Reading (Ephesians 4:30-5:2). According
to this, not believing in the Eucharist as the living body of Christ, the
living bread of life as the living flesh of Jesus, means not being sealed with
the Holy Spirit for redemption (Ephesians 4:30). And that is the crowd who did
not believe in the living bread of life because they hung up on what they knew
about Jesus: Joseph’s son. This human mind cognition prevented him from
receiving the living bread of life for eternal life, though it was what they
begged Jesus.
Perhaps, 69% of Catholics today are like those people
in the Gospel reading, who want to have the bread for eternal life but do not
believe that this bread is Jesus himself. It is because these Catholics do not
believe that the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is the living body and blood
of the incarnated Christ, Jesus, transubstantiated from bread and wine by the
power of the Holy Spirit, according the Pew Research Center’s survey. It is a shameful reality of the Church today,
indicating a failure of catechesis.
Then, how can the Church endure for eternity?
In the Gospel Reading (John 6:41-51), Jesus makes it
clear that we must believe in him and in the truth that he reveals and teaches
to benefit from the living bread of life that endures for eternal life. Unlike
manna, the living bread of life, that is the living flesh of Jesus, is not for
a temporary sustenance but for eternal life. Just as the food that God gave
Elijah during his spiritual crisis helped him begin to recover and further
endure with demanding work for God as His prophet, as reflected in the First
Reading (1 Kings 19:4-8), the living bread of life is for our perseverance to
overcome crises for eternal endurance.
It is imperative that we need to make sure that our
catechesis is a way for the Father to draw catechumen to the Son, who is the
living bread of life for eternal life, so that the Church can truly endure for
eternity. Otherwise, the Holy Spirit, who is found in the living bread in a fiery
manner to keep our hearts burning with faith, and who has been our seal, will
grieve.
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