We are what we eat

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

EXODUS 24:3-8
The whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “Would that we had died at the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!” Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will now rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion; thus will I test them, to see whether they follow my instructions or not. “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them: In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread, so that you may know that I, the LORD, am your God.” In the evening quail came up and covered the camp. In the morning a dew lay all about the camp, and when the dew evaporated, there on the surface of the desert were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground. On seeing it, the Israelites asked one another, “What is this?” for they did not know what it was. But Moses told them, “This is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.”

Ephesians 4:17, 20-24
Brothers and sisters: I declare and testify in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds; that is not how you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard of him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus, that you should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth.

John 6:24-35
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” So they said to him, “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” So Jesus said to them, “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.” So they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

One basic and unchangeable fact is that we need nourishment for our human body to grow and sustain life. Nourishment comes from food and drink. Today's readings put alongside two kinds of food: food for the body and food for the soul.

Though later generations refer it as “grain from heaven” (Ps 78:24) or “bread of angels” (Wis 16:20), manna is the food of the first kind that sustained the Israelites during their sojourn in the desert after they had escaped the slavery of Egypt. No one except that generation knows how manna really looks like or tastes like. It is described as fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground. It would not last overnight except on the Sabbath but melted when the heat of the morning sun reached it (rf Ex 16:12-35). It could be ground or pounded like meat, boiled or made into cakes (rf Nm 11:7-8).

Contrary to the first kind of food that satisfies only hungry stomach, Jesus urges the crowd to seek the second kind of food that satisfies the deeper hunger of the human person – the soul. Though food for the belly is necessary and good for earthly life, nevertheless, our body is perishable and eventually ends with death. But the food which Jesus offers is nourishment for another kind of life - the eternal life.

As often as “eternal life” is being understood as a life with God which finds its fullness in the life beyond death, Jesus teaches that it is more than a hope or promise; it is something given and to a believer, it is already acquired (rf Jn 5:24, 6:47). So on one hand, eternal life is the life in the age to come, on the other hand it begins when a person believes and anchors his/her life in the faith and love of Jesus Christ (Jn 3:15-16, 1 Jn 5:13); a life that knows Him, bears witness to Him and lives His commandment of love.

And this is how Jesus' food can lead us to eternal life. His food can be understood from two different perspectives. Sapientially, it refers to the word, divine teaching and wisdom of God (rf Dt 8:3, 32:2, Prv 9:2-5). Sacramentally, it points to the Eucharist. Though different, these two perspectives complement one another. Jesus, who is both the Incarnate Word of God (rf Jn 1:14) and His Wisdom (rf 1 Cor 1:24), brings heavenly teachings to nourish our souls (rf Mt 24:35, Jn 6:64). He Himself becomes the genuine bread from heaven and offers Himself in the Eucharist as the Bread of Life which not only strengthens our receptivity for the divine teachings, but also gives us a share in that life which the Father shares with Him the Son, and thus preserves us from eternal death (rf Jn 6:35-59). In his Easter Sermon 227, St. Augustine exhorts: “If you receive [the Eucharist] well, you are yourselves what you receive”. In receiving Christ, we become one body in Him, and through Him, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit. We then become what we eat as St Paul says in the Second Reading: ". . . put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God's way in righteousness and holiness of truth" (Eph 4:22-24).

Similar to St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas also offers us this food for thought today: “Material food first of all turns itself into the person who eats it and as a consequence, restores his losses and increases his vital energies. Spiritual food, on the other hand, turns the person who eats it into itself and thus the proper effect of this sacrament is the conversion of man into Christ so that he may no longer live for himself, but that Christ may live in him. And as a consequence it has the double effect of restoring the spiritual losses caused by sins and defects and of increasing the power of the virtues” (A Heart on Fire, James Kubicki pp 91).

May Tam

May Tam, Bachelor of Social Science (University of Hong Kong), Master of Theological Studies (University of Toronto)

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