Reflection:

In this continuation of our pondering on Chapter 6 of John’s gospel, the conclusion is Jesus proclaiming: “I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.”

It all began when Jesus fed the five thousand with five barley loaves and two fish. It was caring for these people that led to this miracle: “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” Jesus is the God who cares for us and can take so little and satisfy the hunger of so many. The people thought this was good and so tried to take Jesus by force to make him king! “This is a king who can provide us with so much food!” Jesus escapes because that is not who he is called to be by the Father.

“Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life”. Then they ask, “What do we have to do to get this food?” What they have to do is “to believe in the one whom God has sent”.

We are called to believe that Jesus is “the bread of life”: So, he is the food that is being offered. And eating this “bread of life” is to believe that Jesus’ Way of Life is real food. Not like the manna in the desert or the five barley loaves and two fish that filled stomachs only. What is that Way of Life? When our hearts are change so that we are merciful, not judging others, not carrying resentments, seeking justice, not creating victims in our world, treating the whole of creation as God’s gift, treating others as we want them to treat us, becoming peacemakers and not causing divisions in relationships, not being hypocritical but authentic………………

This bread doesn’t change our bodies like a good diet. This food changes our hearts and minds so that we become “of the same mind as Jesus Christ”. This food is our belief that Jesus comes from God and lives in us, and that we are his presence in our world.

This food gives us “eternity-life.”

Tony Egar CP is a Passionist Priest that lives at St.Paul’s Retreat Glen Osmond, SA.