I Am The Bread Of Life

Written by Rev. Fr Don Mendoza | 07 August 2012

EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
(Green) Cycle B, Year II (August 5, 2012)
Ex 16:2-4, 12-15/Eph 4:17, 20-24/Jn 6:24-35

Food is one of the basic needs of man. God knows this for this reason He obliges Adam to labor for the food and that during the exodus period, He sends bread from heaven to the Israelites in the desert. Jesus also feeds the thousand people who are following Him in a deserted place with the multiplication of the loaves. Now in the gospel, Jesus Christ is followed by the people because of the things they received from Him, particularly the bread. He then instructs them about the truth that just as our body needs earthly bread to survive so our soul needs spiritual bread for its survival and this bread is none other than Jesus Christ who declares: "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty" (Jn 6:35).

The Jews were scandalized when they heard Jesus telling the truth about His being the bread of life and about the need for them to eat His body in order to gain eternal life. Even the Romans were apprehensive of such truth and they considered the first Christians as cannibals because they ate the body of Christ during their worship. Nowadays, people are not scandalized by the Holy Eucharist because they know that what the Catholics are eating is the consecrated bread or host. On the other hand, many of these people who happen to be Catholics secularize the Holy Mass too much that they do not anymore believe in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacred Host. They simply believe like what the Protestants do that in the symbolic presence of Christ but never in the real presence.

Founded on the words of Christ which are "This is my body" (Lk 22:19) and "I am the bread of life", the Catholic Church teaches us that after the consecration during the liturgy of the Holy Eucharist, the consecrated bread has become the sacramental body of Christ with the real presence of Jesus Christ in His body and spirit, humanity and divinity. And instructed by Christ with His powerful words "Take this and eat it, for this is my body" (Mt 26:26) and "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day" (Jn 654), the Catholic Church teaches us that it is of utmost importance to eat the body of Christ for us to gain eternal life.

"I am the bread of Life." These words of Jesus Christ show the great love of God towards the humanity who because of such love has incarnated and has become the bread of life not only for the salvation of man but also for his spiritual sustenance. This great love of God has furthered made Christ to institute the Holy Eucharist through which He constantly offers His life on the cross for our salvation and gives to us His sacramentalized body for us to be in concrete communion with God when we partake of the Sacred Meal.

If Jesus Christ has become the Bread of Life for us in the Holy Eucharist, we must then give importance to the Holy Mass and do our best to participate in it as much as possible especially during Sundays. This is because it is there that we can follow the command of Christ to eat His body and be spiritually filled. One with Christ through the Holy Communion, we know that we receive bountiful graces and blessings for us to fight against the temptations and sins and to do the will of God and the teachings of the Church through our daily activities. Indeed, real communion with God is when we bring to life our faith through our Christian deeds, words and examples.