Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
John 6:41-51
Dear Friends, In today’s liturgy we continue the discourse on the Bread of Life in chapter six of John’s Gospel. Jesus’ message emphasizes his identity as the Bread of Life. It is only through him, as the Bread of Life, that we will get to know the Father. Likewise, it is only through him as the Bread of Life that we will be fed by the Father on the journey to eternal life. Next week full attention will be on this second element of this discourse, Jesus as the Bread of Life in the Eucharist. Today we continue the emphasis on the person of Jesus as the Bread of Life as our invitation into the Divine Mystery.The crowd’s rejection of Jesus in today’s Gospel has to do with the Incarnation. The people’s limited image of God did not allow them to see that God could use one like us to reveal God’s truth. With many echoes of the Exodus story, the conflict shows Jesus testing the limits of their cramped imagination. In their limited worldview, Jesus, as the Bread come down from heaven, just does not connect as a possibility. They do not want to move much beyond the surface of their world and culture. They truly appreciated God’s generosity in the manna of their ancestors. Yet, they failed to see how much greater was God’s gift of the Bread of Life in Jesus right before their eyes. In the time of the Exodus and here in the gospel time of Jesus, we have the response of the people to God’s gift of bread. The people murmured and complained. Is it that different in our day? We are being challenged to put away our grumbles and our doubts, our confusion and our anxieties and let Jesus guide us through the ever-present darkness and bitterness of life. We must let Jesus be the Bread of Life for us.
The great event of Christianity is that through the humanity of Christ we are called into his divinity. This truth becomes available not by turning away from the traditional truths of the religious tradition of the Chosen People. Jesus points out our calling is to enter more deeply into the tradition by accepting Jesus as the Bread that came down from heaven. Jesus completes and replaces that initial revelation to the family of Abraham. Jesus is God’s continuing offer of life more abundant than we could imagine. The manna in the desert is only the slimmest glimmer of God’s ultimate gift in Jesus as the Bread of Life.
Jesus is telling the people, and us, that the only way we can understand him is through a faith that draws us to a much deeper level. That deeper level is available to us when we open ourselves to the most intense hungers in our hearts. These are hungers only God can satisfy. St. Augustine spoke eloquently of this God-hunger: “You have made us for yourself O Lord and our heart is restless until we rest in you.”
Jesus is challenging the crowd, and us, to go beyond ourselves, beyond our petty world controlled by rigid traditions and limited and routine religious practices. Jesus is inviting us to encounter him and his message as the Bread of Life as the most genuine truth within our lives. We need to allow the Spirit of God open us to the Bread of Life. Again and again, Jesus is offering the wisdom of the Bread of Life. Again and again, this chapter six in John has the offer of eternal life. In today’s Gospel we are called to accept Jesus as the gift of God. This is the gift leading to the ultimate yearning in our heart, happiness forever. Now, in our present moment, this gift of God that is Jesus, helps us to find direction and meaning in our life. Jesus shows us that the authentic truth of our lives will be found in service, reconciliation and love for all in the footsteps of Jesus.
There is an obvious call to share the gift of the heavenly and earthly bread we have received. We need to open our hearts and our pocketbooks to the hungry near and far. We need to see in the homeless and the migrants an opportunity to give flesh in our day to the Bread of Life that is our gift from Jesus.
