“I Am The Bread of Life”!

(Homily 18^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yr. B)

     We may very well say that in the previous Sunday, our reflection centered on man’s need for bread and the society’s need for a just distribution, this week rather we move on to man’s further need to be nourished by the Bread that comes from heaven, Jesus himself. At the heart of the theme of this Sunday is a consoling message that God is a provident God, and He provides for his people. In the Old Testament the Israelite received manna, a food that merely strengthened and nourished their perishable body, while in the New Testament, as evidenced in the Gospel passage, now God feeds his people not just with a manna or a mere bread, but with the Bread of life, His Son Jesus Christ. The generosity of God reached a definitive point in the Gospel periscope, for God does not just give things, He gives Himself. Through and in His Son He is the giver of life and the Bread for the life of the world. And by extension the epistle reading points to the practical and existential change that participation in the Bread of life brings – namely transformation of those who receive it into a new people.

     The first reading (Ex. 16:2-4, 12-15) presents one of the accounts of the manna and quails in the Pentateuch, this is the first account, while the second is found in the book of Numbers 11. In the account of Numbers 11, manna was provided, and when the people murmured, then the quails were given. In the Exodus account instead, greater emphasis is laid on the manna. The final remarks of Moses gives evidence of the emphasis on manna at the expense of the quails, with the phrase “bread from heaven”, and indeed, this phrase was taken  up again by the psalmist in the responsorial psalm: “He rained down manna to feed them, he gave them bread from heaven” (78:24).

     The passage of today’s gospel (Jn. 6:24-35) is part of the great discourse on the Bread of life that Jesus held at Capernaum (cf. Jn. 6:24-65), after that miraculously multiplication of Bread and fish. Therein, the evangelist presents in a glaring manner the salient points around which the discourse is structured. First, Jesus invited the crowd to the basic tenet of the authentic Christian living thus: “Do not work for food that goes bad, but work for food that endures for eternal life. This is carrying out God’s work: you must believe in the one he has sent” (vv. 27.29). The evangelist presents the crowd in search of Jesus, the same crowd that wanted to crown him king after they must have seen him multiply bread and fish (v.15). The narrative stated that Jesus “fled back to the hills”. He sent the disciples to the shore of the sea, and now he set out to meet them. He walked on water to meet them (v.19). Afterwards, the question of the crowd emerged: “Rabbi, when did you come here?” (v.25). But Jesus ignored their question. Rather he was more concerned with the purpose why this Galilean crowd is in search of him. “In truth I tell you, you are looking for me not because you have seen the signs but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat” (v.26).They are in search of him because of the miracles he performs, as such, they were not capable to understand the miracle of the multiplication of bread and fish is a sign. They failed to see beyond the multiplication, the profound meaning of that gesture. They remained at the superficial level, stocked as they were, with the satisfaction of their stomach. This tendency is still common amongst us Christians today, the temptation to seek Jesus for the satisfaction of one’s selfish interest, and not recognizing Him as the Savior of the world, and not a magic man.            

     Upon realization of their selfish interest, Jesus admonished them: “Do not work for food that goes bad, but work for food that endures for eternal life” (v.27). Apparently, the crowd seemed to have understood the admonition of Jesus, little wonder they asked Jesus: What must we do if we are to carry out God’s work?” (v.28). In a succinct manner Jesus explained to them, that it is not all about many works to be accomplished, not an exterior practice, rather it is a fundamental attitude, a radical choice of life, and it consists ‘believing in the one he has sent’ (v.29). For believe in Jesus Christ is basic in the understanding of who he is and what he does.

    And interestingly, to the question of what Jesus does, it seems the Galilean crowd has started to grasp that, and thus they curiously questioned: “What sign will you yourself do, the sight of which will make us believe in you? What work will you do?” (v.30). This interrogation of the Galilean crowd seemingly depicts that they are gradually understanding the meaning of the last affirmation of Jesus, and it was as if they were about to make a step forward, from the desire to satisfy their stomach to the quest to understand and see the works of Jesus. Unfortunately, however, instead of questioning themselves, they questioned Jesus, instead of evaluating the sign that Jesus has already given, they request for another one, an official, decisive sign. Yet deep within their hearts the sign of the Messiah has to be in line with the one worked by God in the desert in Exodus, as we have seen in the first reading. Practically, they ask Jesus for another sign, in order to justify their faith in Him. For them the sign of the multiplication of bread and fish is not yet an eloquent sign. Indeed, they have failed to understand that what is important is not just the sign, but the spirit with which the sign is welcomed, little wonder, the sign does not always lead to faith. Jesus once again, puts it back to them in a glaring manner, by affirming that in the desert it was not Moses that gave the bread from heaven, but his Father, and he further expressed: “for the bread of God is the bread which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (v.33). How many times, have we questioned Jesus, demanding for signs to justify our faith in Him? So, for many of us still in search of signs today, Jesus repeats: “I am the Bread of life”.

     Behold, after that annotation by Jesus, now they have understood better that Jesus was talking about a real bread, however, they still understood it in the material sense, with that conviction they made their request, “Sir, they said, give us that bread always” (v.34). At this point, Jesus declared without any iota of ambiguity that it is not about a bread that nourishes the body, rather it is a spiritual bread that nourishes the soul, and that bread is identified with the person of Jesus, in fact in his words, Jesus declared: “I am the bread of life” (v.35). Then, there is need of going to Him, or believing in Him in order to be nourished by Him.

     Be that as it may, we have to allow the words of Jesus to resound in our hearts.  Most importantly, we have to feel deep within us that the words of Jesus are addressed to us: “Do not work for food that goes bad, but work for food that endures for eternal life” (v.27). Is not as if Jesus is inviting us to be disinterested with the material things and work, nor is He inviting us to inertia, inactivity and laziness, rather  he invites us to put the Bread of eternal life at first place. Secondly, Jesus reminds us that the most important work or thing to do, is to “believe in the one he has sent” (v.29). We are therefore called to believe, not in an abstract manner, but in a concrete and existential way, which entails living in accordance with the Gospel, to follow the teachings and the examples of Jesus. Above all, as emanating from this passage, three basic questions have to occupy our minds: ●Who is Jesus for us? ●Is He truly the bread of life without whom we are disoriented? ●Do we adhere to Jesus for supernatural motives or for our own material gains and immediate advantage?

     In the second reading (Eph. 4:17.20-24) St. Paul delineated the style of life that is derived from the belief in Jesus and the acceptance of Him as the Bread of life. Indeed, the apostle presented in a concrete manner what faith in Jesus requires of us. And in the negative, he warns us not to comport ourselves “as the gentiles…, in the futility of their minds” (v.17), he invites us to rid ourselves of the “old self, which belongs to your old way of life and is corrupted by following illusory desires” (v.22). And in the positive, he exhorts us to the renewal in the Spirit and to “put on the New Man that has been created on God’s principles, in the uprightness and holiness of the truth” (v.24). This is a continuation of the parenesis or the ethical exhortation present in this epistle. Therein, we encounter a fascinating pattern of renunciation and renewal: ‘put off’ and ‘put on’, these two phrases are suggestive of the divesting and vesting of oneself with the optics of Baptism, which further points to the old pagan life and the new Christian life.

     Above all else, however, in the reflection on manna and bread we cannot but see a progressive revelation of what God does and who He is to His people. The psalmist captured it vividly well when he says “The things we have heard and understood, the things our fathers have told us, we will tell them to the next generation: the glories of the Lord and his might” (78:3). In the Gospel passage the writer emerged with a polemics against a faith that does not penetrate beyond the sign to the thing signified, little wonder, the exhortation to labor for the bread from heaven and not for earthly bread. This Bread in question has to be received in faith that is the only way to labor for it. Indeed, Jesus self-acclamation as the Bread of life introduced the discourse into the Eucharistic domain, which will be thoroughly developed in vv.51-58. In all, What we commemorate in the Eucharist is more than a mere remembrance or a consolation for an absence, it is He in us, His living presence in us, and being in us, he sends us forth to become in turn bread for the world, through our hands that become His. He invites us thus, to become bread and life-giving to each other. Lord Jesus, Bread of life, help us to become more like You, more of You, and less of us. Amen!

(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)