“I am the living bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:51)

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

1 Kings 19:4-8
Elijah went a day’s journey into the desert, until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it. He prayed for death saying: “This is enough, O LORD! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree, but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat. Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake and a jug of water. After he ate and drank, he lay down again, but the angel of the LORD came back a second time, touched him, and ordered, “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!” He got up, ate, and drank; then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.

Ephesians 4:30 - 5:2
Brothers and sisters: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.

John 6:41 - 51
The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven, ” and they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. 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.”

This Sunday’s Gospel reading ends with this beautiful verse “Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (Jn 6:51).

In these few words, the core of our Catholic faith is succinctly expressed, Jesus dies for us so that we may have life. Jesus is the bread of life. When the Liturgy of the Eucharist is celebrated, the bread becomes the body of our Lord Jesus Christ and we have the opportunity to receive His body through the Sacrament of Holy Communion.

Jesus also assures us, who have gone to Him, that no one can do so unless God the Father draws us to Him: “Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me” (John 6:45). Are we humbled to find ourselves among those who have heard and learned from the Father?

Indeed, we are very blessed to have the gift of faith to go to Jesus with the intention of following Him and living out the Gospel. All too often, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. It is easy for us to be distracted by the glamour and attractions of this world; it is not easy to live a simple life in faith and hope as Jesus teaches us. Let us always remember what St. Paul teaches us in the second reading and pray that we must be “imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us” (Ephesians 5:1-2).

In last week’s reflection “We are what we eat”, the author quoted St. Augustine’s exhortation in his Easter Sermon 227 that “If you receive [the Eucharist] well, you are yourselves what you receive”, we become one body in Christ. We will live forever as Jesus promises. Jesus teaches us, “if you are about to offer your gift at the altar and you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar, go at once and make peace with him, and then come back and offer your gift to God “ (Matthew 5:23-24). This teaching of Jesus is equally relevant, if not more, when we are to receive a divine gift, His body, through receiving Holy Communion during Mass. We must receive Holy Communion well. If we bear unrighteous thoughts, bitterness or anger in our minds, no matter how small they may be, let us put these away, scrub our minds sparkling clean before receiving Jesus into our hearts. Then, “[Jesus] will raise [us] up on the last day” (John 6:44), we will live forever.

Shiu Lan

Shiu Lan is your Catholic neighbour with a simple faith and likes praying the Rosary. With a B.Sc from the University of Hong Kong, she worked in Information Technology and Project Management before working with joy at home.

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