BREAD FROM HEAVEN, BREAD OF LIFE.

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August 4, 2024.
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – B.

Readings: Ex 16:2-4, 12-15; Ps 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54; Eph4:17, 20-24; Jn 6:24-35.

“Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” John 6:27.

A Swedish proverb says: “Lack of bread forces one to work.” A Corsican proverb adds: “He who eats holy bread has to deserve it.”

One of the most beautiful patristic hymns, which has also become one of the best-ever written Eucharistic hymns, is Panis Angelicus. In it, St. Thomas Aquinas gives the deepest meaning of the Eucharistic Bread. He says, "Thus Angels' Bread is made the Bread of man today: The Living Bread from heaven with figures dost away: O miraculous gift indeed! The poor and lowly may upon their Lord and Master feed."

In the Holy Eucharist, it is exactly what we celebrate and receive. The Bread from Heaven, the Bread of Angels that becomes Bread of Men in order to feed and nourish the poor and sinful creatures that we are. God provides for our human and spiritual needs. He gives us life through the life-giving sacrifice of his Son.

In today's readings, we are brought to reflect in an extraordinary way on the Holy Eucharist. In the first reading, it is prefigured under the image of the Manna. To the people of Israel, in their journey toward the Promised Land, God gave the Manna. We read that the Lord sent manna from heaven. In their waywardness in the desert, the people complained to Moses about having nothing to eat. "Why did we not die at the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt when we were able to sit down to pans of meat and could eat bread to our heart’s content! As it is, you have brought us to this wilderness to starve this whole company to death!" Moses interceded to God. The Lord answered: "Now I will rain down bread for you from the heavens. Each day, the people are to go out and gather the day’s portion." And so the Lord gave them something new, unknown to the children of Israel. Thus, the question: "What is that?" in Aramaic mannā, from Hebrew mān. To which Moses answered, it is the bread the Lord gives you from Heaven. This bread sustained their lives and kept them on the journey toward the land of Canaan.

Like the children of Israel, we, too, are on a journey. We journey in this life filled with many needs, spiritual as well as material. And God is always near, providing for our needs, as we said last Sunday. 

The Gospel opens us to this great catechism of Jesus about the bread of life. We are taken from Mark to John, from the multiplication of bread to the theological teaching about the true meaning of Jesus' miraculous feeding of the people. To the people who were seeking him after they were all fed with bread, the Lord says, "Do not work for food that cannot last, but work for food that endures to eternal life..." And that led to a discussion and teaching on the Lord as the true bread of life.

Let us live aside all the considerations and points of discussion, and reflect on the Holy Eucharist. What does it stand for for us? How do we approach it? What or rather, whom do we receive in the Holy Eucharist?

We learn through the Eucharist that Jesus is essential to our life. He is the essence of our being. Without him, we will all lose hope and crawl in our journey of life. We need Jesus to live.

Deeper than this, our spiritual being loses its meaning without Jesus. We cannot earn our way to heaven without the Lord. He came from heaven to lead us to heaven. The Holy Eucharist is the Sacramental and permanent presence of Christ amidst the Pilgrim Church. In the Eucharist, Jesus is given or he gives himself for our life.

Humanly speaking, we all know the usefulness and the need for bread (food) to live. Science and researchers say that it's difficult to determine exactly how long a person can survive without food, as it depends on individual factors. However, estimates suggest that a healthy person can survive for around three weeks with access to water. Without both food and water, survival is unlikely to exceed four days. This is for physical and physiological needs. In the spiritual aspect, living without Christ is a sudden death sentence. Unfortunately, many who refuse to let their faith in Christ transform their lives condemn themselves to a nonlife. Regrettably, our churches are sometimes filled with Christless Christians.

Today's liturgy comes to remind us of our needs of Christ and challenge us to feed ourselves on him in the Holy Eucharist.

This will also mean putting aside your old self and putting on the new being, transformed by what we receive in the Holy Eucharist. Our minds must be renewed by a spiritual revolution... We must truly become Christians, Alter Christi, because we receive and are fed on Christ. We must become what we eat, Eucharistic people.

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