Synopsis of OT XVIII [B] Homily on John 6:24-35
Introduction: Today’s readings challenge us to be more concerned with spiritual food than physical food and to get our spiritual food regularly from the word of God and from the Holy Eucharist – the Heavenly Bread, because only God can satisfy the various forms of our spiritual hunger.
Scripture lessons: The first reading shows us how God satisfied the physical hunger of His chosen people in the desert by giving them manna and quail. The restrictions imposed by God for the collecting of manna remind us to acknowledge humbly our total dependence on God and to trust that He will always provide for what we need. Today’s Responsorial Psalm (Ps 78), refers to manna as “Heavenly bread” and the “bread of angels” which God provided for Israel and provides for us today. In the second reading, St. Paul advises the Ephesians to satisfy their spiritual hunger by turning away from their former evil ways and by leading renewed lives of love, kindness, compassion and forgiveness. Paul reminds us that our acceptance of Jesus as the real source of our life and the nourishment of our souls effects a total transformation in us. Having been nourished by the Bread from Heaven and the word of God, we need to bear witness to Christ by living lives renewed by the Holy Spirit. Today’s Gospel passage is taken from the “Bread of Life Discourse” in John’s gospel. Here Jesus makes the unique and bold claim: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” Jesus is offering the crowd Bread from Heaven, Bread that nourishes them for eternal life, the Bread available to people who have Faith in Jesus Christ. When Jesus instructed those, who had sought after him for earthly food, that they should be fed by the Bread of his word or teaching, some accepted his teaching. But others turned away disappointed, because Jesus’ challenge required a commitment that they were unwilling to make.
Life messages: 1) We need spiritual nourishment from the word of God and from the Holy Eucharist: In the Holy Mass, the Church offers us two types of bread: a) the Bread of Life, contained in God’s Word and b) the Bread of Life, contained in the Holy Eucharist. Let us nourish our souls with this Heavenly manna and carry Jesus to our homes and workplaces, radiating his love, mercy and compassion all around us. But we should not take for granted the Divine generosity that provides these gifts so readily and gratuitously by sharing in the Bread of Life simply as a matter of habit, without repenting of our sins or showing due attention and proper respect. 2) We need to accept God’s gifts of spiritual life and strength by understanding what the Holy Eucharist gives us: The Sacrament gives us 1) Courage to carry out God’s work in the world, 2) Help to live the life God wants for us, 3) Inspiration to know the will of God in our lives, 4) A deeper Understanding of the holy mystery of Christ’s Presence, 5) Encouragement to love others and strengthen the Faith community, 6) Grace to overcome temptation and avoid sin and 7) Joy and Peace of heart, knowing that Christ lives in us and will bring us to God’s Heavenly Kingdom. Let us remember that the “Bread of Life” is Jesus Christ himself, not merely human bread. He is Food for our souls giving us a share in God’s life and assurance of eternal life with Him.
OT XVIII : Ex 16:2-4, 12-15; Eph 4:17, 20-24; Jn 6:24-35
Anecdotes: #1: All about food, earthly and Heavenly: In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks about food. The two biggest sellers in any bookstore, according to Andy Rooney, are the cookbooks and the diet books. The cookbooks tell you how to prepare the food, and the diet books tell you how not to eat any of it. Orson Wells once said, “My doctor has advised me to give up those intimate little dinners for four, unless, of course, there are three other people eating with me.” Champion archer Rick McKinney confesses that he regularly eats chocolate chip cookies for breakfast. He refers to “the basic four food groups” as a Big Mac, fries, a shake and a lemon tart. A California scientist has computed that the average human being eats 16 times his or her own weight in an average year, while a horse eats only eight times its weight. This all seems to prove that if you want to lose weight, you should eat like a horse. (Sunshine Magazine). That’s a subject most of us know too much about. A recent survey found that 41% of men and 55% of women consider themselves overweight. In one way or another, many of us are obsessed with earthly food. Think what a difference it would make in our lives if we were equally obsessed with Heavenly Food, the Food that Christ gives us.
# 2: “I’ve got a piece of him.” William Barclay tells us that when Admiral Lord Nelson was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral, a party of his sailors carried his body high into the cathedral. His coffin was draped with a magnificent Union Jack. Later they carried his body to the graveside. One who saw the scene writes, “With reverence and with efficiency they lowered the body of the world’s greatest admiral into its tomb. Then as though answering to a sharp order from the quarter deck, they all seized the Union Jack with which the coffin had been covered and tore it to fragments, and each took his souvenir of the illustrious dead.” All their lives that little bit of colored cloth would speak to them of the admiral they had loved. “I’ve got a piece of him,” they said, “and I’ll never forget him.” In a sense, when we leave this Church this morning after receiving Jesus in Holy Communion, each of us will take Jesus with us and covey the spiritual nourishment he gives us to others as we come into contact with them. The “Eu” in Eucharist, as the Lord’s Supper is often called, means “good,” and “charis” is the root of our English word “caress.” The Lord’s Supper is the “good caress.” In this Sacrament God comes to us spiritually and physically and touches us and says, “I love you.” He alone touches and satisfies our deepest needs. He alone allows us to reach out and touch one another.
# 3: The Great Depression Bread-lines. In the depression years of the 1930’s millions of Americans were out of work and many thousands were hungry. In a number of cities, religious groups set up bread-lines to feed the hungry. One of these was the Franciscan monastery in Cincinnati, Ohio. Every evening, the Friars, Brothers and lay volunteers prepared and gave a nourishing sandwich of bread and meat to hundreds of hungry men and women. It was interesting to note the reactions of the recipients. Many accepted the well-prepared and well-wrapped food with a smile and a thank you. Others, with heads hanging, snatched the food package and shuffled off. Some tore the bag at once and started eating as they hurried away. Most of them ate every last crumb after a silent prayer and put the wrapping into a nearby container, though some would eat only the meat and discard the bread on the roadside. A few discontented ones just opened the package and then threw the entire contents away in protest. The way those hungry unfortunates reacted to that little lunch is a lot like the way his listeners received the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel.
Introduction: Today’s readings challenge us to trust in the providence of a loving and caring God and to hunger and thirst for the Bread of eternal life – the Holy Eucharist. As human beings, we hunger for many things besides food and material possessions. We hunger to be recognized and honored, to love and be loved, to be listened to and to be appreciated, to help, console and encourage people and receive gratitude. But only God can satisfy our various forms of spiritual hunger. St. Augustine said: “O God, You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You” (Confessions, I, 1.).
The first reading shows us how God satisfied the hunger of His chosen people in the desert by giving them manna and quail. The restrictions imposed by God for the collecting of manna remind us to trust that God will always provide for our needs. Sometimes we have to be stripped of our usual sources of support in order to be reminded that our ultimate sustenance comes only from God, and then to acknowledge humbly our total dependence on God. Today’s Responsorial Psalm (Ps 78), refers to manna as “Heavenly bread” and the “bread of angels” which God provided for Israel and provides for us today. In the second reading, St. Paul advises the Ephesians to satisfy their spiritual hunger by turning away from their former evil ways and leading lives of love, kindness, compassion and forgiveness. Paul reminds us that our acceptance of Jesus as the real source of our life and the nourishment of our souls effects a total transformation in us. Having been fed on the Bread from Heaven, we need to put aside our old selves, steeped in ignorance and self-interest, and put on a new self, created in Christ’s image. Having been nourished by the word of God, we need to bear witness to Christ by living lives renewed by the Holy Spirit. In today’s Gospel, Jesus makes the unique and bold claim: “I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst.” Jesus was offering the crowd Bread from Heaven, Bread that nourishes for eternal life, Bread available to people who have Faith in Jesus Christ. When Jesus invited those who sought after him to be fed spiritually by the bread of his word or teaching, some accepted the nourishment. But others turned away, disappointed because Jesus’ challenge required a commitment that they were unwilling to make.
First reading, Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15, explained: The passage from Exodus describes how the people complained to Moses of the acute shortage of food in the desert and accused him of leading them from Egypt, where food was plentiful, into the desert, to “die of famine.” God heard the complaint of His people and lavished on them “food from heaven” in the form of fleshy quails in the evening and delicious manna in the morning. The restrictions imposed by God for collecting the manna remind us to trust that God will always provide what we need. Sometimes we have to be stripped of our usual sources of support in order to remember that our ultimate sustenance comes only from God, and to acknowledge humbly our total dependence on God. The fact that the Israelites were given bread from Heaven even after their murmuring reminds us that God’s generosity is not dependent on our virtue, but on His Goodness. According to Bible scholars, quails and manna are occasional phenomena in the Sinai desert. Arranging for these gifts to arrive at the moment they were needed to meet the people’s need, however, was God’s work alone, His miracle. The quail might have been migratory birds that often drop down in groups to the Sinai deserts due to exhaustion after their return flight from Europe over the Mediterranean Sea to their autumn habitats. Manna is the secretion of two species of scale insects on the tamarisk shrub during the months of May and June. But it was God’s doing that the fall of manna occurred daily (except Sabbaths), for the 40 unbroken years of their wandering in the desert. As the secretions drop from the shrub’s leaves to the ground, they cool in the night air and become firm. If gathered early before the parching desert sun melts it, the manna provides a tasty, nourishing meal. Bedouins in the northern Sinai call it mann and still use it as a sweetener. The fact that the occasional occurrence of the manna and quail can be explained scientifically does not, in any way, lessen their theological importance in demonstrating God’s love for His people; indeed, the Israelites rightly ascribed these nourishing, timely gifts from the desert to the loving providence of their God.
Second Reading, Ephesians 4:17, 20-24, explained: In the selections from Ephesians which we have read on these past two Sundays, St. Paul showed us how God effected a new unity of His once separated peoples, the Jews and the Gentiles, by making both Christians. In today’s second reading, St. Paul encourages the Jewish and Gentile Christians to live out the consequences of their unification, by treating each other like members of one family. He also demands of the Gentile Christians of Ephesus radical changes from their pre-Christian way of life. They must a) “put away the old self of their former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires,” b) “be renewed in the spirit of their minds,” and c)” put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth.” They must put away the old pagan life and put on the new Christian life, just as the catechumens divested themselves of their outer garments to go down into the Baptismal waters and, after emerging, were clothed in Baptismal robes. Here, St. Paul is challenging all baptized believers to personal holiness.
Exegesis: The context: Today’s Gospel presents an introduction to Jesus’ famous discourse on the Holy Eucharist in the form of a dialogue between Jesus and the Jews who had gone around the Lake and come to Capernaum searching for him. The people were looking for a repeat performance of their miraculous feeding. In answer to their question about his arrival, Jesus told them that they looked for him for another free meal and that such meals would not satisfy them. Hence, he instructed them to labor for food that would give them eternal life.
Believing is the first condition: Although Jesus identifies himself as “the bread of life” (v. 35), he is not yet speaking about the Sacramental Eucharist in this part of his Eucharistic discourse. Here, the emphasis is placed on the Faith-acceptance of the teaching of Jesus. In other words, Jesus states that he is nourishment, first of all, as one who offers us the life-giving words of God about the meaning of our lives. His message only gives life when we accept it and when it leads us from selfishness to selfless and sacrificial service for others. Jesus states that he is the bread of life for the one who “comes” to him and “believes” in him (v. 35). Jesus offered to satisfy the spiritual hunger of the people gathered around him on one condition. They must believe him to be the Messiah, sent with the message that God is a loving, holy, and forgiving Father, and not a punishing judge. Belief in Jesus is not simple intellectual assent, but an authentic, total commitment to Him of loyalty and solidarity. There is no reference yet to eating His Body or drinking His Blood, which will come later. Here, we are reminded that only a believing reception of the Body and Blood of Jesus will bring us true life.
Demand for a sign from Heaven: In reply to Jesus’ claim that he was the Messiah sent from Heaven to give eternal life to those who believed in him, the Jews demanded a sign from Heaven. Moses, they said, had given a Heavenly sign to their ancestors in the manna rained down on them from Heaven. The Jewish rabbis taught that the Messiah would repeat the miracle of manna and the prophet Jeremiah would reappear and unearth the Ark of the Covenant from its hidden place to show the Jews the original manna kept in the Ark. Jesus corrected their understanding of Exodus 16:15 by stating that it was not Moses but God, Jesus’ Father, who had given, and continued to give, bread from Heaven. Jesus is apparently speaking to two groups: those who witnessed the miracle of the loaves (last Sunday’s Gospel) and those who had not seen the miracle but had heard about it and wanted to see a similar sign as proof. Jesus tells the former group that there is something much deeper in this event than “perishable food” being multiplied; the real “food” is his own Body later to be offered on the cross and glorified by Resurrection, and the word of God proclaimed, its power and authority manifested in the miracles of the loaves. Jesus reminds the latter group who seek a sign as the Israelites sought a sign from Moses, that it was not Moses himself but God working through Moses Who provided food in the form of manna. The same God has given His people new bread for the new covenant — the Risen Christ.
The Giver and the Gift: Jesus not only gives the Bread of Life (John 6:11, 27) — He is the Bread of Life (John 6:35, 48). The Giver and the Gift are one and the same. As the Bread of Life from Heaven, Jesus claims that only he can satisfy man’s spiritual hunger. While bodily food helps us to stay alive in this world, spiritual food sustains and develops our supernatural life which will last forever in heaven. Through God’s infinite love we are given, in the Blessed Eucharist, the very Author of the gifts of Faith and sanctifying grace. Thus, the Eucharist is not a mere “symbol” of Jesus; rather, it is a Sacramental sign of Jesus’ Real Bodily Presence in his glorified risen Body. This Bread of Life — which is Jesus himself — gives mankind a new relationship with God, a relationship of trust, obedience and love.
“The Son of Man” and “works of God” and I AM.”: this expression has been the subject of considerable debate by scholars over the last 30 years. In its original Semitic (Hebrew or Aramaic form), “a son of man” was simply a human being, generically speaking. However, Jesus’ use of “THE Son of Man” as a title to refer to Himself seems to suggest, either that He Himself is the ‘paradigm’ of what it is to be human, or is perhaps an allusion to the “one like a son of man” who is seen by the Old Testament prophet Daniel (7:13, “one like a human being” in the NRSV translation), mounted on the clouds, and coming with God’s power to judge the earth. The exact meaning that Jesus intends this phrase to carry continues to be argued by scholars. “The works of God”: although this phrase can be understood in several possible ways, it seems from the context here to mean “the works commanded by God and expected of His people.” “I am the Bread of Life”: throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus uses the expression “I am …” seven times (indicative of completeness) to introduce various key images by which He describes His person and His mission: “I am … the True Bread … the True Light … the Gate … the Way … the Good Shepherd … the Resurrection and the Life … the True Vine”. However, on an even deeper theological level, the Greek expression egô eimi (“I am”) relates back to the scene in Exodus 3:14, when God tells Moses to use this name (a shortened form of the divine name YHWH, “I Am Who I Am”) in asking Pharaoh to free the enslaved Israelites. “I Am” is, therefore, an explicitly divine title, and by using it repeatedly throughout this Gospel, Jesus is making a radical claim to BE the God that the Israelites had known in the time of Moses and the Exodus. . (Dr. Watson Murray).
“The source and summit of the Christian Life:” The emphasis in this segment of the Bread of Life Discourse is placed on the Faith-acceptance of the teaching of Jesus. In other words, Jesus is nourishment first of all as one who offers us the life-giving words of God about the meaning of our lives. Moreover, this Divine message, if it is to nourish for eternal life, must be accepted in a way that leads us from self-centeredness to unselfish love and sacrifice for others. It is for this reason that Jesus states that he is the bread of life for the one who “comes”? to him and “believes”? in him (John 6:35). In fact, what the Eucharist is not a kind of “static” presence of Christ, but the living and perfect self-offering of Christ to his Father, carried out by giving himself to us and for us. We believe that the Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian Life“(Lumen Gentium), because it contains the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Jesus Christ Himself. The Eucharist is a Sacrament of love that unites us with Christ who lived, died and rose again to bring us salvation, strengthens and makes holy our relationship with our fellow-Christians, nourishes us with the transforming power of grace and prepares us for the future glory of God’s Heavenly banquet.
Life messages: 1) We need spiritual nourishment from the word of God and from the Holy Eucharist: In the Holy Mass, the Church offers us two types of bread: a) the Bread of Life, contained in God’s Word and b) the Bread of Life, contained in the Holy Eucharist. Unfortunately, many of us come to Mass every week only to present on the altar our earthly needs without accepting spiritual nourishment by properly receiving God’s Word and the Holy Eucharist. Let us nourish our souls with this Heavenly manna and carry Jesus to our homes and workplaces, radiating his love, mercy and compassion all around us. It is perhaps the plainness and ordinariness of the consecrated Bread and Wine and their easy availability in our Churches that sometimes prevent some of us from appreciating the great gift of God in the Holy Eucharist. But we should not take for granted the Divine generosity that provides these gifts so readily and gratuitously by sharing in the Bread of Life simply as a matter of habit and without showing due attention and proper respect.
2) Let us gain spiritual life and strength by properly receiving the Holy Eucharist: It gives us 1) Courage to carry out God’s work in the world, 2) Help to live the life God wants for us, 3) Inspiration to know the will of God in our lives, 4) A deeper Understanding of the holy mystery of Christ’s presence, 5) Encouragement to love others and strengthen the Faith community, 6) Grace to overcome temptation and avoid sin, and 7) Joy and Peace of heart, knowing that Christ lives in us and will bring us to God’s Heavenly Kingdom. Hence, we must receive the Holy Eucharist with our whole minds and hearts. Let us never forget that the “Bread of Life” is Jesus Christ himself, not merely human bread. When we pray, “give us this day our daily bread,” let us remember that the Holy Eucharist is not simply a “snack,” such as we might eat at a party or at lunch. It is food for our souls giving us a share in God’s life.
3) Multiply good works like the loaves and fishes, (Pope Francis July 26, 2015) “Jesus satisfies not only material hunger, but the most profound of hungers, the hunger for meaning in life, the hunger for God. In the face of suffering, loneliness, poverty and difficulties of so many people, what can we do? Complaining, does not solve anything, but we can offer what little we have. We certainly have a few hours of time, some talent, some expertise. … Who among us, does not have his or her “five loaves and two fish”? If we are willing to put them in the hands of the Lord, we will bring a little more love into the world, a bit more love, peace, justice and joy. God is able to multiply our small gestures of solidarity and make us partakers of his gift.”
(Prepared by: Fr. Anthony Kadavil, Chaplain, Sacred Heart Residence (L. S. P.), 1655 McGill Ave, Mobile, AL 36604)