Season of
Denha
Seventh Sunday: JOHN 6:47-59
JESUS IS THE BREAD OF LIFE
INTRODUCTION
In this gospel passage, Jesus presents himself as
the bread to attain eternal life. Even before he established the Holy
Eucharist at the last supper, he predicted the offering of his body and
blood for the forgiveness of our original sin. Jesus contrasted his
life-giving bread from heaven to the bread that God gave to the
ancestors when they wandered in the desert for 40 years. Those who ate
manna in the desert could survive temporarily and then they died. Manna
did not guarantee them eternal life because it was for their physical
survival. The body of Jesus gives us eternal life because he assures to
raise us after our death. Jesus ensured his communion with us when we
receive his body and blood. Let us remain faithful to Jesus and his
church so we continue to receive the Holy Eucharist during the Holy Mass
and thus enjoy the privileges that Jesus offers.
BIBLE TEXT(JOHN 6:47-59)
(John 6:47) Amen, amen, I
say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. (48) I am the bread of
life. (49) Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
(50) this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat
it and not die. (51) I am the living bread that came down
from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread
that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” (52) The Jews
quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us [his]
flesh to eat?” (53) Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do
not have life within you. (54) Whoever eats my
flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the
last day. (55) For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
(56) Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in
him. (57) Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of
the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of
me. (58) This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your
ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live
forever.” (59) These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in
Capernaum.
INTERPRETATION
Jesus fed a
multitude of 5,000 men and an equivalent number of women and children
with the miraculous multiplication of five loaves of barley bread and
two fish. Because of this, people considered Jesus as a prophet and
wanted to make him king. However, he withdrew from there (Jn 6:1-15).
The same crowd sought and found Jesus on the next day. He told them: “I
tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because of the signs you
saw, but because you ate bread to your satisfaction. You must work, not
for perishable food, but for the lasting food which gives eternal life.
This is the food that the Son of Man will give you, for the Father’s
seal has been put on him” (Jn 6: 26-27). Thus, Jesus introduced his body
and blood for our spiritual nourishment, comparing it with the physical
food that he served through the multiplication of the bread, and the
manna that God gave the Israelites during their 40-year wanderings in
the desert.
(John 6:47) Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
Amen means
acceptance or affirmation. The Israelites used it at the end of a
prayer, blessing, curse, or a statement expressing their endorsement of
what was said. For example, when Ezra opened the scroll and blessed the
LORD, all the people raised their hands high and pronounced, “Amen,
amen!” (Nehemiah 8:5-6). In Deuteronomy 27:14-26 the Israelites were
asked to answer “amen” to the 12 curses pronounced by the Levites at
Mount Ebal. By that, they accepted the courses that would fall on them
if they would violate the laws that God gave them through Moses.
Since amen
stands for truth, Bible uses it as a title of God such as “The God of
Amen” or God of Truth (Isaiah 65:16). Revelation 3:14 presents Jesus as:
“The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the source of God’s creation.”
St. John concludes the Holy Bible with “Amen” (Rev. 22:20-21).
Jesus used
the Hebrew word, “Amen” at the beginning of a statement, or even twice
as “Amen, Amen, I say to you” (John 3:3). The meaning is “truly, truly,
I say to you” or “I solemnly tell you the truth.” By these words, Jesus
affirmed the truthfulness of what he was about to say. In John’s gospel,
Jesus used this doubled “Amen, amen” 25 times, followed by important
messages. Repetition of the word “amen” or “truly” emphasized
authenticity of the truth compared to ordinary statements. Jesus was the
only one who knew all the truth because he came down from heaven and he
was one with the Father. He is the “Father’s only Son, full of grace and
truth” (Jn 1:14).
Jesus
emphasized what he had said before, “For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal
life, and I shall raise him [on] the last day” (Jn 6:4). So, faith in
the Son of God is the condition to attain everlasting life. Faith in
Jesus involves accepting him as the Messiah, listen to his teachings,
and put that into practice following him as a role model. Jesus
summarized the Law and prophets, “You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is
the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall
love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt 22:37-39). Jesus expressed this in
his life through his fidelity to the Father and his service and
self-sacrifice for humanity.
The epistle
of James gives us an example of how we should express our faith in
action. “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but
does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has
nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to
them, ‘Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,’ but you do not give them
the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself,
if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:14-17).
At Jesus’
second coming in glory to judge the living and dead, the criteria for
reward or punishment are based on our faith in action. To the righteous
he will say, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you
gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me” (Mt 25:35-36).
“Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of
mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40). “Come, you who are blessed by my
Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world” (Mt 25:34). Are we living in such a way as to hear such blessed
words from Jesus Christ?
The bread is
necessary for us to sustain our lives. However, we have souls that also
need nourishment. Jesus came down from heaven as a spiritual bread to
nourish the souls. We cannot attain eternal glory without this
life-giving bread.
People make
bread from plants or trees using their leaves, stems, roots, seeds, or
nuts and also consume their fruits. We also cook fish and meat of
animals or birds. The food production involves a partial or full
sacrifice of the life of plants, animals, or birds. Likewise, our
spiritual food requires the sacrifice and death of Jesus. By his
self-sacrifice, Jesus became our living and life-giving bread for our
souls.
In the
Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily
bread.” That bread is not just the physical bread that we make, or buy
from market, but also the supernatural bread, the Holy Eucharist. God
fed Israelites with manna daily in the desert for 40 years for their
physical survival until they reached the Promised Land. Jesus is
nourishing Christians with another supernatural bread, his body and
blood, until we reach heaven, which is the perfect Promised Land.
Jesus
reminded the providence of God in the history of Israel during the 40
years of wandering in the desert before their entry into the promised
land. If God had not provided that food, called manna, the whole
Israelites would have perished in the desert. Though manna saved their
lives, it was only a temporary rescue because all the ancestors died
afterwards. Jesus presented this to contrast it with another par
excellent food Jesus would provide to save us from sinful death and gain
us eternal life.
Why Jesus
used “your ancestors” rather than our ancestors? Though Jesus shares the
same ancestry for his human origin, he is different because he also has
a divine origin as the Son of God. While the crowd was talking about the
earthly food, Jesus was dealing with the heavenly bread. So, he
distinguished between him and the people who questioned him, referring
to the ancestors as theirs (Jn 6:31).
Jesus pointed to himself as the bread from
heaven. Unlike the bread that God sent from heaven in the desert, this
one will preserve life for eternity.
No human can be bread for others to consume. But
Jesus offers himself to us as bread for our spiritual nourishment.
Unlike ordinary bread, this has life in it.
The
listeners of Jesus knew the bread from heaven, the manna God supplied
daily from above for 40 years in the desert. God told Moses: “Now I am
going to rain down bread from heaven for you” (Ex 16:4). “In the evening
quails came up and covered the camp. And in the morning, all the place
around the camp was wet with dew. When the dew lifted, there was on the
surface of the desert a thin crust like hoarfrost. The people of Israel
on seeing it said to one another, ‘What is it?’ for they did not know
what it was. Moses told them, ‘It is the bread that the LORD has given
you to eat’” (Ex 16:13-15).
Jesus is the
new bread that came down from heaven to sustain our spiritual life, and
he continues nourishing us with the Holy Eucharist, which is his own
body and blood. As per God’s instruction, Moses asked Aaron to put a
full omer (measure) of manna in a jar and place it in front of the
Lord’s covenant in the tabernacle (Ex 16:33-34). Thus, the Israelites
kept manna in a jar close to the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of
Holies. In its place, we keep the new manna, the Holy Eucharist, in a
tabernacle in the church sanctuary.
Eternal life
requires consuming the living bread, which is the body and the blood of
Jesus. The physical food can keep our life only until death. Whereas the
bread that Jesus gives is for the nourishment of our eternal soul. The
following verses emphasize this.
Jesus fulfilled his promise of giving his flesh as
bread and blood as drink for us at the last supper, followed by his
sacrifice on the cross. “The Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed
over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said,
‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the
same way also the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new
covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance
of me’” (1 Cor 11:23-25). The next day, Jesus physically did his one and
only sacrifice (Heb 10:14) where he let his enemies rip his flesh and
shed his blood. That was for the remission of the original sin and for
our sanctification. Thus, God fulfilled his promise of a Saviour made to
Adam and the chosen people of his descendants. This sacrifice was to
regain eternal life for all people who will accept Jesus’ call. “He is
expiation for our sins, and not for our sins only but for those of the
whole world” (1 John 2:2).
The Jews,
who could not understand what Jesus meant, argued, asking how he could
give his flesh to eat while he was alive. It was beyond human reasoning.
The Jewish groups differed in their opinions on what Jesus said. That
led them to quarrel among themselves. Eating the flesh of a human or of
any live creature was unlawful for Jews. Some might have taken it in a
literal and others in a metaphorical sense. But they got confused about
what Jesus meant by this strange statement.
Here again,
Jesus uses amen twice to affirm the truth of what he was about to say.
He repeats, “I say to you” to declare his authoritative teaching. Since
he came from the Father, and no other humans know the truth, only he
could officially teach the truth.
While the
Jews were disputing on what Jesus meant by eating his flesh, he
emphasized his statement using “amen, amen” and “unless you eat.” This
reminds us of the first Passover meal that the Israelites ate in Egypt.
During that Passover, they slaughtered a lamb, collected its blood in a
basin, and applied the blood to the lintel and two doorposts using a
bunch of hyssops (Ex 12:22). Though they did not drink the blood of the
Passover lamb, they ate the meat of the Lamb. When the Israelites obeyed
God by slaughtering the lamb, applied the blood to mark their doorposts,
and ate its meat, God saved their first born from death and liberated
all of them from the Egyptian slavery. Jesus came as the new lamb of God
for slaughter to save all who believe in him and obey his commands. So,
eating his body is the new Passover for our liberation from the bondage
of sin and Satan.
When the Jews brought animals for communion
sacrifice in the Tabernacle, and later in the Temple, only a portion of
the animals were burned. “Those who perform the temple services eat
[what] belongs to the temple, and those who minister at the altar share
in the sacrificial offerings?” (1 Cor 9:13). The worshippers ate the
rest at the temple premises with devotion. Since they ate the flesh God
had accepted and blessed, they leave the Temple as God-filled. Jesus
presented a similar concept, except that instead of animals, he was the
sacrificial lamb.
The Jews
celebrated Passover like the communion sacrifice. After the offering the
Passover lamb in the Temple, they ate the roasted meat of the lamb with
unleavened bread and bitter herbs (Ex 12:8). Jesus is the new Passover
lamb and Holy Qurbana (Mass) is our Passover celebration where we join
the sacrifice of Jesus and consume his body, the Holy Eucharist. That
heavenly meal is necessary for our spiritual life and nourishment for
our heavenly journey.
The Bible
uses the “Son of man” and “Son of God” only for Jesus. Since Jesus is
God and man, both apply for him. The difference is that the Son of Man
refers to his humanity. Jesus uses it here because he was referring to
eating his flesh that is part of his human entity.
From
creation until the Great Flood, humans and animals were vegetarians (Gen
1:29-30). God changed the rule after the flood, allowing people to eat
meat and vegetables (Gen 9:3). However, God restricted them, saying,
“Only flesh with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat” (Gen 9:4).
God told the Israelites, “For the blood of every creature contains its
life and, therefore, I have said to the people of Israel: You shall not
eat the blood of any creature, for the life of all creatures is within
its blood; whoever eats it shall be ostracized” (Lev 17:14). Priests
offered the blood of the sacrificed animals to God in the Temple as a
ransom for the lives of Israelites.
Since Torah
prohibited the consumption of blood, the Israelites felt it scandalous
when Jesus asked them to drink his blood. But Jesus had a different
concept when he offered his blood to drink. Through his precious blood,
Jesus offers his life to the humans. So, when we drink the blood of
Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, he makes his dwelling within us as the
temple of God.
During the
first Passover in Egypt, the Israelites applied the blood of the
Passover lamb to the lintel and two doorposts (Ex 12:22). In the New
Testament, Jesus applied his blood on the cross, which is the door or
ladder to heaven.
Israelites
used blood to make a covenant. At Mount Sinai, when God made a covenant
with the Israelites, “Moses then took the blood and sprinkled it on the
people saying, ‘Here is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made
with you in accordance with all these words’” (Ex 24:8). At the Last
Supper, Jesus took the cup and said, “Drink from this, all of you, for
this is my blood, the blood of the Covenant, which is poured out for
many for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:27-28). So, when we partake in
the cup of Jesus during the Holy Mass, we are renewing our covenant with
him.
In the
positive sense, when we eat the body of Jesus and drink his blood, we
will have life within us. This life is the regaining of the spiritual
life lost because of the original sin. If we refuse to take part in this
new Passover meal and abandon our faith, we will miss the eternal glory
that Jesus has gained for us.
Jesus
noticed people’s lack of conviction about what he taught, and he
observed the conflict among them. So, he kept repeating and confirming
what he had said before. From a prior negative statement, he switched to
his promise of eternal life to those who eat his flesh and drink his
blood.
Jesus
expands his previous statement, assuring those who eat his body and
drink his blood that he will raise them from the graves on the last day
when he returns from heaven in glory to judge the living and the dead.
That assures hope of life after death.
Jesus answers to the question of Jews, “How can
this man give us his flesh to eat?” So, he asserts that his flesh is
true food and blood true drink. Since this teaching was before the
institution of the Holy Eucharist, even the disciples could not grasp
it. Hence, after hearing this incomprehensible teaching, most of them
dropped his discipleship, and no longer accompanied him (Jn 6:66).
When we eat the meat of animal, we do not identify
with the animal. Whereas Jesus says if we eat his flesh and drink his
blood, he will abide in us, and we will be in communion with him. When
we consume his flesh and blood in the Eucharistic meal, our soul will
fuse with Jesus’s spiritual presence. The Catholic Church teaches, “the
celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice is wholly directed toward the
intimate union of the faithful with Christ through communion. To receive
communion is to receive Christ himself who has offered himself for us”
(CCC-1382).
Jesus taught the necessity of this communion with
him. “Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear
fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you
unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever
remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you
can do nothing” (Jn 15:4-5). Besides, “Whoever acknowledges that Jesus
is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God” (1 John 4:15).
Again, “Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them,
and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit that he
gave us” (1 John 3:24).
While the pagan gods are creation like the sun and
moon, or a natural phenomenon like fire and lightning, or lifeless
statues, the God of Israel is an ever ling God. God revealed to Moses
that he is a God of those who live even after death. “I am the God of
your father, he continued, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob” (Ex 3:6). God revealed his name to Moses, “I am who I am”
(Ex 3:14). This is an assertion of God’s self-existence. Jeremiah
proclaimed, “The LORD is truly God, he is the living God, the eternal
King” (Jer 10:10). Simon Peter confessed his faith in Jesus, “You are
the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16).
Jesus came down from heaven because his Father sent
him to the earth with a mission. “I came down from heaven not to do my
own will but the will of the one who sent me” (Jn 6:38). “For God so
loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes
in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not
send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
might be saved through him” (Jn 3:16-17). So, the living Father sent His
Son to regain eternal life for those who believe in him. Without him, we
cannot regain this because we are born in original sin. “Revelation
gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is
marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents”
(CCC-390).
While confirming the life in the Father,
Jesus revealed the same life he shares with the Father. “For just as the
Father has life in himself, so also he gave to his Son the possession of
life in himself” (Jn 5:26).
After instituting the Holy Eucharist, Jesus
commanded to do it in remembrance of him (1 Cor 11:24-25). Therefore,
the church continues this every day. During the (Qurbana) Holy Mass,
Jesus feeds us with the sharing of the Word of God in the Liturgy of the
Word and with his precious body and blood at the communion service. “By
this sacrament we unite ourselves to Christ, who makes us sharers in his
Body and Blood to form a single body” (CCC-1331).
Though Jesus departed from the world as a human, he
lives and provides eternal life for his believers. At his farewell
speech, Jesus told his apostles, “In a little while the world will no
longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On
that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I
in you” (Jn 14:19-20). So, the life we gain is a communion with Jesus
and his Father.
The ancestors of Jews ate manna that God provided
from heaven. “Then the LORD said to Moses: I am going to rain down bread
from heaven for you” (Ex 16:4).
The Bible
speaks of three heavens that are to be distinguished from the context.
1. The
firmament or immediate atmosphere that surrounds the earth and where the
birds fly beneath the dome of the sky (Genesis 1:20). The Psalmist
refers to this heaven: “Beside them the birds of heaven nest; among the
branches they sing” (104:12).
2. The dome
where God established sources of light, including sun, moon, and stars
(Genesis 1: 14-18). The Psalmist refers to this heaven saying: “The
heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims the works of
his hands” (Psalm 19:2).
3. The place
where God, the holy angels, and souls of the just men dwell. It is
called “The heaven of heavens,” or “the third heaven” (2 Cor.12:2).
Moses told the Israelites: “Look, the heavens, even the highest heavens,
belong to the LORD, your God” (Deuteronomy 10:14). St. Paul had an
experience of being taken up to the third heaven where he had the
revelation of God (2 Cor. 12:1-4). He calls this third heaven, the
paradise.
The quail and manna came by God’s intervention from
the firmament (the first heaven) through the nature. “In the evening,
quail came up and covered the camp. In the morning there was a layer of
dew all about the camp, and when the layer of dew evaporated, fine
flakes were on the surface of the wilderness, fine flakes like hoarfrost
on the ground” (Ex 16:13-14). Jesus made a distinction of that food from
heaven (firmament) with him, that is the bread that came from “the third
heaven.” “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread
from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the
bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the
world” (Jn 6:32-33).
The bread that God gave to the ancestors in the
desert was from the firmament for physical hunger. Jesus, from the
heaven of heavens, is the bread that nourishes our souls and gives
eternal life. Those who ate the quail and manna died. Though we, who
consume the body and blood of Jesus, will die, God will raise us to
inherit the eternal glory in heaven. Jesus told Martha, “I am the
resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will
live” (Jn 11:25).
The evangelist contextualizes the discourse
by stating that it was held in the synagogue in Capernaum. So, it was a
public teaching for all Jesus’ listeners, including his disciples. There
were other instances where Jesus spoke only to his disciples.
Jesus made Capernaum as the center of his
public ministry because it had some favorable conditions for him.
1. Since Capernaum is on the northwestern
shore of the Sea of Galilee, there were fishermen, farmers, and
travelers from neighboring cities. So, Jesus had access to the Jews and
Gentiles there.
2. The Jews in Capernaum were more open to
the preaching of Jesus because of their multi-cultural influence.
Whereas the Jews in Jerusalem, Judea, and Nazareth were conservative and
hostile to Jesus.
3. Jesus could travel easily from Capernaum
to neighboring cities around the Sea of Galilee by walking on the
seashore or sailing by boat.
4. Out of his 12 apostles, Peter, Andrew,
James, John, and Matthew were from Capernaum. Peter offered his house,
that was close to the synagogue, for Jesus to stay.
5. Besides preaching in the synagogue and the
house of Peter, he could also preach at the shore of the Sea of Galilee
to accommodate the enormous crowd who came to meet him.
Jesus used to teach in the synagogues first
(Jn 18:20), because he could pray there as well as address the Jews in
the village who came for public worship. He also read and interpreted
the scripture in the synagogues (Lk 4:16-21). He also taught on the
Temple premises. When the crowd that came to see Jesus increased and
objections from the Jewish elites increased, he moved to public places
like the lake shore or mountain.
MESSAGE
1. Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross and
established the Holy Eucharist for us to worship God, remembering his
sacrifice. Though Christians have the privilege of taking part in the
Holy Mass, some people evade it. Let us pray for them because they are
losing the eternal life for themselves and their future generations.
2. Jesus offered the Holy Eucharist so we can
attain eternal life with God, which must be our ultimate goal in life.
We should teach our coming generations the same.
3. The Jews quarreled among themselves,
saying, “How can this man give us [his] flesh to eat?” They could not
understand it with their reasoning. Faith involves natural reason and
divine revelation, which man cannot arrive at by his own capacity. Some
people demand scientific proofs for faith, though it is beyond the reach
of science. Let us learn from Noah, Abraham, Job, and others who obeyed
God, even when God’s demands on them were beyond human reasoning.
4. Since we take part in the Holy Mass and
receive the Holy Eucharist every Sunday or even daily, they become a
routine for us. Let us be mindful of the importance of the Holy Mass and
take part in it with proper preparation and devotion.
5. Let us keep the sanctity of the church
where we have the altar representing the throne of the Almighty God and
the tabernacle where we have the real presence of Jesus in the
consecrated bread.