Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time
John 6:51-58
Dear Friends, Today we continue our journey with John’s theme of the Bread of Life. Up to this point, the message has been Jesus the Bread of Life as a gift of wisdom. He is the full revelation of God including the loving plan of redemption and the call of the Father to eternal life. Now there is a subtle switch to incorporate Jesus as the Bread of Life that nourishes us in the Eucharist.It is very helpful to keep in mind the rich biblical themes as we ponder the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel passage. The whole of chapter six of John looks back to the manna in the desert. It also recalls the Passover meal along with the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Finally, it is all gathered together in the Passion and Death of Jesus. In these topics we encounter Jesus as Word and Sacrament.
The first thing we must remember is that Jesus is not speaking in the language of modern science, that of chemistry, biology or medicine. He was speaking the language of the heart as it related to the abundant scriptural tradition of the Jewish people. He was talking about his human person as the presence of God’s message. Both the New Passover of his death and resurrection and the New Manna of the Eucharist are a message that divided the crowd. He was presenting himself as the gift of God far beyond the generosity of God’s manna in the desert. He is now the bread that offers ever-lasting life. He is the new Pascal Lamb that will lead to deliverance from slavery in all its seemingly endless expressions of evil. He will set us free from all that keeps us from loving God with our whole heart and anything that hinders true human development.
What Jesus is saying in the gift of his flesh and blood is that we are called not only to new life but eternal life. Like the story of the vine and branches, Jesus is using the plea to be one with him in his body and blood. This will make his life and our life one in a mission of love. This life-giving participation in the Eucharist, the New Passover and the New Manna, helps all who partake of the body and blood to share Jesus’ sacrificial and saving love for the world. Through sharing communion with Jesus, we participate in his love for all people. We are called into the fundamental message of all the Gospel: “Love one another as I have loved you.” (Jn13:34)
Those in the crowd who rejected the message understood clearly. They were not ready to leave their old tradition. Jesus was proclaiming a new day. Jesus was transparent. God is now speaking through him. We have to unite with Jesus to truly hear the word of God and to embrace it in our life by sharing in the love for all. All barriers are to be broken down. All forms of exclusion are to abolished. This is possible by the gift of the Eucharist where Jesus gives us the Bread of Life to walk in the way of love. This new life takes flesh in our service and sharing with all our brothers and sisters, with our care for all God’s creation.
John’s message in chapter six is that Jesus feeds us in two ways. The first is the revelation of God’s truth and wisdom. The second is in the Eucharist of his flesh and blood calling us into communion in a life of love. Both gifts are Jesus as the Bread of Life. In the Word made flesh that is the Incarnation of Jesus, God goes beyond the freedom of the Exodus and the nourishment of the manna. God far surpasses his providential generosity. God wildly exceeds the grasp of our human understanding. This is why we spend these five weeks pondering God’s love in Jesus as the Bread of Life. In the end only faith will open our heart to this divine gift. In Jesus, God transcends mere information. God is inviting us into the Mystery of Love that is the true nourishment for the hunger in our heart and the call to transform the world.
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