Friars Corner: Work for the Bread of Life that lasts forever

Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15; Ps 78:3-4, 23-25, 54; Ephesians 4:17, 20-24; John 6:24-35

Come Holy Spirit, enlighten the darkness of our minds and hearts.

This week again we are looking at the “bread of life” stories from Exodus 16 and John 6. In Exodus story as the Jews had left Egypt, they complained about the lack of food in the desert. God provided bread in the morning and quail in the evening. With all of our abundance and variety of food we could wonder about a steady diet for years of bread and quail. God was testing their confidence in him and he does the same for us today.

What makes us different?

Why do we follow the scriptures and the traditions of the earliest Christians? What makes us different than all of the other denominations? The answer is the Mass and our belief in the Holy Eucharist. Today’s Responsorial Psalm 78:3-4 says: “What we have heard and know, and what our fathers have declared to us, we will declare to the generations to come, the glorious deeds of the Lord and his strength and the wonders what he wrought.”

Saint John takes chapter six to explain five times that Jesus is the Bread come down from heaven, and for us each day as we ask in the Our Father prayer Jesus taught us: “give us this day our daily bread.” St. John began chapter 6 with the long story of the multiplication of loaves at the Passover feast. Jesus said: “I solemnly assure you, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven; it was My Father who gives you the real heavenly bread. God’s bread comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (32-33) Jesus then said:

1) 6:35: “I myself am the Bread of Life.”
2) 6:41: “I am the Bread that came down from heaven.”
3) 6:48: “I am the Bread of Life.”
4) 6:51: “I myself am the Living Bread. If anyone eats this Bread, he or she shall live forever; the Bread I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
5) 6:55: “For my flesh is real food and my blood real drink. The man (person) who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”

Jesus did not tell the crowd that day how he was going to do that. Even to us today it sounds like cannibalism. Reading the other Gospel stories about the Last Supper help our understanding at little more. Yet St. Paul is shorter and more precise in 1 Corinthians 11:23-25: “I received from the Lord what I handed on to you, namely that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread, and after he had given thanks (to His heavenly Father), broke it and said,

‘This is my body,’ which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after the supper Jesus took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, Do this whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’”

Two sentences change everything

When you study these lines carefully you see there are certain words that change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus. There are other lines that are the instruction of what the priests are to do. I think it is important to let these words sink into our minds. We need to ask Jesus to remove the cataracts from our eyes and open our ears and give us the real faith to believe what he did then almost two thousand years ago. We are still obedient to Jesus’ instruction then and now.

I have sensed for some time that the entire Mass floats around the two consecration sentences as the Holy Spirit changes bread and wine each day to feed us all over the world. The early Christians wrote about their hunger for this bread of life. Psalm 34: 9 says, “Taste and see how good the Lord is.” I see the Mass as Christmas every day. We bring the priest bread and wine and he says the words Jesus said, yet in our own language. And Jesus becomes present to feed us. Is this not a great gift and the greatest meal on earth? No money can buy this Body and Blood of Jesus.

I encourage you to think and pray about these texts. Ask the Holy Trinity to pierce your mind and heart with more understanding, which leads to great joy. It will grow stronger each day even in the midst of some suffering. Our joy then radiates through us to the world.

Have a blessed and ecstatic week
 + Fr. Bob Hilz

(© 2015 Fr. Bob Hilz, TOR)