The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to receive Jesus as the bread of life, that is the Word made Flesh through which we act with Wisdom and Love in the relationships in which we are grateful to experience.
The reading from the Book of Proverbs describes Wisdom’s Feast.
* [9:1–6, 13–18] Wisdom and folly are represented as women, each inviting people to her banquet. Wisdom’s banquet symbolizes joy and closeness to God. Unstable and senseless Folly furnishes stolen bread and water of deceit and vice that bring death to her guests. The opposition between wisdom and folly was stated at the beginning of chaps. 1–9 (folly in 1:8–19 and wisdom in 1:20–33) and is maintained throughout, down to this last chapter. (Proverbs, CHAPTER 9 | USCCB, n.d.)
Psalm 34 offers praise for Deliverance from Trouble.
* [Psalm 34] A thanksgiving in acrostic form, each line beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In this Psalm one letter is missing and two are in reverse order. The psalmist, fresh from the experience of being rescued (Ps 34:5, 7), can teach the “poor,” those who are defenseless, to trust in God alone (Ps 34:4, 12). God will make them powerful (Ps 34:5–11) and give them protection (Ps 34:12–22). (Psalms, PSALM 34 | USCCB, n.d.)
The reading from the Letter to the Ephesians exhorts our duty to live in the Light.
* [5:15–16, 19–20] The wording is similar to Col 4:5 and Eph 3:16–17. (Ephesians, CHAPTER 5 | USCCB, n.d.)
The Gospel of John continues Jesus' Bread of Life Discourse.
* [6:54–58] Eats: the verb used in these verses is not the classical Greek verb used of human eating, but that of animal eating: “munch,” “gnaw.” This may be part of John’s emphasis on the reality of the flesh and blood of Jesus (cf. Jn 6:55), but the same verb eventually became the ordinary verb in Greek meaning “eat.” (John, CHAPTER 6 | USCCB, n.d.)
David Crawford comments that today’s scriptures have him thinking about food and drink, and with good reason.
The 19th-century food writer Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin once stated, “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.” As Christians, we have been given some amazing food and drink in the form of Wisdom, which comes from and brings us closer to God; and in the form of the Christ, God incarnate who brought (and still brings) love, mercy, forgiveness and healing. Our food culture, so to speak, should be to partake of and share this wisdom, love, mercy, forgiveness and healing. Like Jesus, who ate with the “wrong” people (i.e., sinners and tax collectors) as well as the “right” ones (e.g., the Pharisee in Luke 7), we should share what God has given us without discriminating. In some instances, it is through our loving, caring, Spirit-led actions that others can taste and see that the Lord is good. (Crawford, n.d.)
Don Schwager quotes “Abiding in Christ,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
" Jesus recommended to us His Body and Blood in bread and wine, elements that are reduced into one out of many constituents. What is meant by eating that food and taking that drink is this: to remain in Christ and have Him remaining in us." (excerpt from Sermon on John 26,112) (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on John 6:51-58 recalls that in 1975, while traveling to Saigon, Vietnamese Bishop Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan was arrested and thrown into prison. His family sent him a bottle labeled “medicine,” which was actually wine, as well as some hosts broken into small pieces. With these essentials, he shared the power of Jesus in the Eucharist with his fellow prisoners.
“I spent nine years in solitary confinement, and during that time I said Mass every day at three o’clock, the hour of Jesus’ death on the cross. . . . They were the most beautiful Masses of my life.” (The Road to Hope)
After thirteen years in prison, Bishop Nguyen Van Thuan was released. Named a cardinal in 2001, he died a year later. All his life, Jesus in the Eucharist was his “true food” and “true drink” (John 6:55). May the Eucharistic Lord always be ours as well!
“Jesus, Bread from Heaven, nourish and sustain me all the days of my life!” (Meditation on John 6:51-58, n.d.)
Peter Edmonds SJ takes us through Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel, in which Jesus speaks of himself as ‘the bread of life’ and explains how it functions as a homily, referring to and weaving together a rich assortment of Scriptural texts.
In a sense, the discourse is finished. Jesus is the bread from heaven in terms of life, of wisdom and of revelation. But the synoptics (Mark 14:22; Matthew 26:26; Luke 22:19) and Paul (1 Corinthians 11:24) identify Jesus as the bread of the Eucharist. And the Johannine community would have shared this belief. They would have looked for this teaching in the account of the Last Supper but instead they found there the washing of the feet (13:1-12). In John, the Eucharist doctrine is found here, in Jesus’s teaching after feeding the five thousand: ‘My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.’ (6:55)
A parallel is to be found in the Emmaus story in Luke (24:13-35). Jesus first reveals by explaining the scriptures, then the disciples recognise him in the breaking of the bread. This structure of word and sacrament is preserved in Eucharistic liturgies until this day.
The bread of life is now the Eucharist. We meet new words: flesh, blood, eat, drink, and a new definition of the bread: it is Jesus’s ‘flesh for the life of the world’. Sarx (flesh) emphasises the physical reality of this bread. This bread is for the world (3:16). Now we find hints of the cost of this gift: it is the death of Jesus as the Son of Man. It is ‘the blood of the covenant which is poured out for many’ (Mark 14:24; Matthew 26:28).
The response of the Jews is hostile: they ‘began to fight among themselves’. A fourth ‘Very truly…’ saying repeats previous teaching in the context of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of Man. A new word is used for eating (trogo), one that is extremely physical, implying chewing or munching. Blood, an obvious Eucharistic word, occurs for the first time. This eating and drinking is now a condition for possessing eternal life, for being raised on the last day, and for mutual abiding in Jesus.
Thus, to possess eternal life one must:
see and believe in the person of Jesus, the bread of life (6:40);
hear and believe the revelation that Jesus embodies as that bread (6:45,47);
eat and feed on bread of the Eucharist (6:51,54,58). (Edmonds, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler comments on the portrayal of Wisdom as a woman in the Hebrew Testament and the attribution of human qualities to God that existed at the end of the universe. The text from Ephesians emphasizes prayer and our mission to live according to the values we have learned. Friar Jude reminds us of the realized eschatology of the “Bread of Life” and the connection to future eschatology at the end times.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that we need someone to be in solidarity with us, so we can learn what it means to be in solidarity with ourselves, and eventually with others. Have we forgotten how Jesus formed his disciples?
We can read all the words of Jesus in the Gospels in a matter of hours, but Jesus spent three long years discipling the people who followed him. What he gave them was not so much his words but his example and his energy, his time and his touch. “Where do you live?” said the first two disciples of Jesus. “Come and see,” he replied, “so they went and saw where he lived, and stayed with him the rest of that day” (John 1:39). What a telling account! In John’s Gospel, one of his disciples even laid his head on the breast of Jesus (see John 13:23–25). They knew how energy was passed: not primarily by sermons and books, but by relationships and presence. (Rohr, n.d.)
We contemplate the relationships on our journey that have brought us life and wisdom as we connect to Jesus as the “bread of life” that energizes our compassion and charity in bringing life to our environment.
References
Crawford, D. (n.d.). Daily Reflection Of Creighton University's Online Ministries. OnlineMinistries. Retrieved August 18, 2024, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/081824.html
Edmonds, P. (n.d.). The Bread of Life. Thinking Faith: The online journal of the Jesuits in Britain. Retrieved August 18, 2024, from https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/bread-life-john-6
Ephesians, CHAPTER 5 | USCCB. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 18, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/ephesians/5?
John, CHAPTER 6 | USCCB. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 18, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/6?51
Meditation on John 6:51-58. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved August 18, 2024, from https://wau.org/meditations/2024/08/18/1053862/
Proverbs, CHAPTER 9 | USCCB. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 18, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/proverbs/9?1
Psalms, PSALM 34 | USCCB. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 18, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/34?2
Rohr, R. (n.d.). A Helpful Relationship. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved August 18, 2024, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/a-helpful-relationship/
Schwager, D. (n.d.). He Who Eats This Bread Will Live Forever. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved August 18, 2024, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2024&date=aug18
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