“I Am the Bread of Life”

     Earlier last month we celebrated our independence, as a nation. What we should be celebrating now is our, dependence, as a people, on God. There’s been a theme to the readings these past few weeks; that God is our ultimate provider. God is our provider, but there is also a responsibility, as we see in the readings, that we must also do our fair share of the work.

    In last week’s Gospel we heard Christ feed thousands of people with two fish & five loaves of bread; and not only did they eat all they wanted, but there were twelve baskets full of leftovers. What I found especially interesting about that reading is that Christ then instructed the Apostles to collect the leftovers, so that “none should go to waste”. That request may seem a little odd coming from Christ, who can obviously perform miracles to provide for any number of people, but he’s obviously telling us that we have a responsibility; to be careful with our resources, not to be wasteful, and to share what we do have. A good lesson for us today, in this world of plenty for some and starvation for others. We do have that responsibility to look out for our brothers. One thing scripture doesn’t tell us is what happened to those leftovers. Did they get distributed as people left? Maybe this is the first reference to the invention of the “Doggy Bag”. Or maybe a reference to the founding of the first “Food Bank”, who knows… But I think we can be certain that they didn’t go to waste.

     Now today’s readings continue the same theme, that God is our master provider. The first reading from the Book of Exodus gives us the first reference to the “Bread of Life”, manna from heaven, when God provided for the Israelites in the desert at their time of need. But then the Gospel goes beyond our physical nourishment, to our spiritual nourishment. Christ tells us he is the new manna from heaven. “I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to me shall never hunger. And he who believes in me shall never thirst”.  These words from Christ are simple, clear and forceful. Today’s Gospel introduces the theology of the Eucharist. And tells us that the Eucharist and the Word of God, are both the Word of Life. God reveals himself through the Word and the sacrament of the Eucharist, and we can’t separate the two.  And again, we’re told of our responsibility; to work. To work, not, for the food that perishes, but for the food which endures for eternal life. We are also told that the work God wants from us is to believe in the one he has sent. That’s why we are called here to both tables, the table of the Word, and the table of the Eucharist. A great gift from God, but one that does take work on our part.

     We should not be consumed by the desire for worldly possessions, for those things that perish, but for that which leads us to life everlasting. How often do we let our possessions and our personal desires get in the way of the true Bread of Life?

     Today, we’ve already listened to the word of God. In a short while we’ll have the opportunity to receive the sacred sacrament which is the Eucharist. Let us not let our participation become so routine that its meaning is lost.

     “I Am the Bread of Life,” said Christ. Jesus is the true bread, the bread of eternal life, which the Father has given us from heaven. To accept him as such, is to do the work the Father wants of us.