19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
John 6, 41-51
The mythical fountain of youth is an object that has inspired a lot of adventure stories of people who believe that they can live forever if they manage to find it and have a drink of its precious water.
The gospel for today is something like that. It is a declaration from Jesus that he is the bread of life and anyone who eats this bread will have eternal life. For the Jews, this was very problematic and, most probably also for us, if we don’t have the Theology of the bread and wine as the Body and Blood of Christ, we’ll also be shaking our heads in unbelief.
The first problem is Jesus’ declaration that he came down from heaven. This is problematic because in the Jewish culture, status quo was a highly regarded value. If your father was a carpenter, the son was expected to take up this trade. If your father was a fisherman, the son was expected to be a fisherman. If your father was a priest, the son was expected to be a priest. To “move up” your status would bring disgrace not only to you but also to your family. Jesus already ruffled some feathers by first not taking up the trade of his father Joseph as a carpenter, but rather becoming an itinerant preacher and even taking the title of “Rabbi” which, while it was an honour for him, for a good number of Jews it was thought of as a disgrace to his family to be seen to be “moving up” his status. And then, what they heard next was seen by many to be quite outrageous, bordering on the ridiculous. Jesus was now declaring that was the “bread that came down from heaven”. This means that Jesus was declaring that he came from heaven. For his listeners, this might be too much or too funny and that is why they are murmuring.
For many of us in our day and age, if we hear somebody say that he or she came from heaven, we would also raise our eyebrows. We would most probably dismiss him or her as a lunatic or something. Yet, Jesus during his time made this bold declaration and he paid the price by being ridiculed and persecuted. Fortunately, we have the gift of the Holy Spirit to be able to believe and have faith in Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, there are still people who have doubts about this declaration of Jesus, especially those outside of the Church. However, even among those inside the Church, there are people whose faith needs growth, nurturing and formation so they will be able to appreciate this special gift of God, that God who is from heaven became one of us.
The second problem is even worse. Jesus declaring himself as the “Living bread”. What is the living bread? In the Jewish culture, bread was the staple food so it means bread is everything. Without bread, one would definitely go hungry. Bread is everything for the Jews. And now Jesus, who is all flesh and bones, is declaring himself as bread? What is Jesus implying? Is this bread, a metaphor, some sort of symbolism, or literal bread? For many listeners of Jesus during that time, no doubt they made their minds up now that Jesus was indeed a lunatic.
Again, it is the gift of faith from the Holy Spirit that we believe that Jesus gave himself to us as the bread of life for us to have life. Yet, there are still Catholics who still doubt or are not serious about this most precious gift that Jesus has given to us.
If we look at the scriptures very carefully, there is no doubt that Jesus is indeed the bread of life. Every time we go to Mass and partake of Communion, the piece of wafer that we receive is indeed the bread from heaven, the body of Christ.
As we continue on this series about the “Bread of Life”, our faith is sometimes challenged more and more. And yet, we continue to believe and with the help of the Holy Spirit our faith will be strengthened. And more importantly, we will appreciate what we receive at Mass during Holy Communion, the actual BREAD OF LIFE.