The Bread of Life

A benefactor gave a generous donation to a parish with a request that each of the sisters working in the parish should be given $50. One sister got the inspiration that she would give her $50 to the first poor man she meets.  After the Mass she saw a shabby looking man leaning against the post across the church.  She ran to him and gave him her $50 saying,

“Here, you poor man.  God speed!” 

The man asked, “But Sister, what’s your name?” 

“Sister Ann,” came the answer as she ran into the convent.

That afternoon the shabby looking man came to the convent looking for sister Ann.  The porter told him, “Sister Ann is at prayer.  She cannot be disturbed.  Would you like to leave a message?”

“Yes, here’s $200,” said the man.  “Tell Sister Ann that ‘God Speed’ came in second!”

Well, that’s one kind of multiplication.  But I don’t recommend that you apply today’s Gospel message to the racetrack.

Those who are breadwinners among you would often wish how you could multiply your family budget.  We earn a fixed income (usually too small it seems, for the expenses of the household.)  And we have to make it last for two weeks or a month.  That means we have to calculate the amount of every item of our budget, and we have to make sure that the total amount will not exceed our income – a difficult task – with the constant increase of oil prices, and everything that goes with it – transportation, electricity, basic food commodities, and taxes.

I often have to agonize with some of our working students whose parents or guardians have lost their jobs.  And so aside from struggling with their studies, they have to look for part-time jobs to help support the family.

Among all our expenses, one item stands out as the biggest of all.  And that item is food. It is central in our lives and in our economy. 

Housewives spend a lot of time and energy going to the market.  Then much more time is spent in preparing the food.  And how much time of our lives do we spend just eating our meals every day – not to mention coffee breaks and meriendas, if we can afford them? 

Food and eating is such an important part of our lives.  Much of our meetings and business deals are transacted over dinner or a cup of coffee.

It is not surprising that Jesus often pictures the kingdom of God as a wedding banquet.  And he sets the most important sacrament, the Holy Eucharist in the context of a meal, the Last Supper.

The importance of today’s Gospel, the multiplication of the loaves and fishes is shown by the fact that all the four Evangelists report it.  But for John, this event is the institution of the Holy Eucharist.  That is why the Last Supper account of John with a long farewell discourse does not include the account of the institution of the Holy Eucharist.

The connection between the multiplications of the loaves, and the Eucharist is made quite clear by the subsequent discourse on the “Bread of Life.”  Jesus is the Bread of Life.  Whoever eats this Bread will live forever.

John’s account of the multiplication of the loaves differs noticeably from the Synoptic versions in several ways.  For John, the crowd is not gathered to hear Jesus’ teaching, but they followed him because of his healing power. 

While the dialogue about the need for food remains similar, the meal differs significantly.  Here Jesus distributes the loaves himself, not the disciples.  Moreover, John focuses almost exclusively on the bread.

And John introduces the scene by describing a crowd that followed Jesus “because they saw the signs he was performing.”

After he feeds the crowd, “When the people saw the sign,” they wanted to make him king.  A king was expected to provide not only peace, but also abundance.  The crowds seem to see Jesus only as a temporal king to provide food in abundance, thus Jesus withdraws from them.

John’s Gospel highlights direct and personal experience with Jesus. It is no minor difference of detail to have Jesus distribute the bread himself. John’s focus is not on the disciples sharing in Jesus’ mission, but upon Jesus as the one who desires to feed the hungry.  The focus is on the bread. 

It becomes clear from the subsequent dialogue that the scene is part of a larger unit in which Jesus presents himself as the bread of life, given to nourish those who believe.   We are often surprised by the way God provides for our needs, feeding us with the Bread of Life. 

The most unlikely persons may become “channels of grace” to us, as did that small boy, who offered his lunch of bread and fish to Jesus, when the multitudes on the hillside were hungry.  We are not only fed by the Bread of Life.  We are also called to share it with others. 

This means sharing God’s grace, the forgiveness we receive in Jesus, which gives us hope and assurance no matter what comes to us.

But there is more.  It also means sharing material things to help meet the needs of those living in hunger and poverty.  The Church has sometimes focused on the so-called “spiritual needs” of people, restricting God’s gift of the Bread of Life to matters of soul and spirit.

We Christians are called to share materially with others, no matter what their need.  When we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” we are not praying for spiritual sustenance.  It’s actually very material. 

Martin Luther rightly emphasized that by the words “daily bread” is meant everything we need for this life, such as food and clothing, home, property, work, and income, a developed family, an orderly community, a good government, favorable weather, peace and health, a good name, and true friends and neighbors.  The bread, which God graciously gives to us relates to our entire being. 

We pray that God will feed us generously with the Living Bread and that we will share with others with grateful hearts.  This involves every aspect of life, both body and soul.  We need to be nourished regularly by the Bread of Life, just as we need to eat regularly to nourish our bodies. 

Worship, including reading of the Scripture, prayer and receiving the Eucharist, are all natural parts of Christian life.  So is fellowship with other Christians in the community, which God creates through the Church.

The Spanish philosopher and writer Unamuno tells of a Roman aqueduct in Segovia, Spain, which was built in 109 A.D. and brought water from the mountains to a thirsty city for more than 1800 years.  One day it was decided to give the old aqueduct a well-deserved rest.

The city constructed a modern pipeline to carry water to the people.  Soon the aqueduct began to fall apart.  The sun cracked the mortar and made it crumble.  For hundreds of years this aqueduct had held together, but now it began to disintegrate. 

What generations of service could not destroy, idleness soon disintegrated.  Our Christian lives are like that.  If they fall into disuse and are left idle, they soon fall apart and disintegrate. 

That’s why bread is such a wonderful symbol of Jesus, God’s gift to us.  Just as our physical bodies need regular nourishment, so our relationship with God needs to be nourished and celebrated and expressed each day. 

Like that ancient aqueduct, which needed to be used regularly to be effective, we need to be each day the channels of God’s love and mercy towards others.

D.T. Niles, the late great Christian leader from Sri Lanka summarizes our stance as Christians:  “Christian mission is not one person, with an abundance of bread, condescendingly doling it out to those who are less fortunate.   Christian mission is rather one beggar standing alongside another beggar pointing to the source of food.”   We are fellow beggars, equally in need of the Bread of Life.

Each Sunday Eucharist is accompanied by many signs – both external – banners, posters, vestments, music; others are essential to the meaning of the Mass – the words of Scripture, the bread and wine that is brought to the altar, the assembly itself.  We must be open at each Mass to see more deeply into these signs – both external and essential – as leading us to faith in the person of Jesus Christ, who is the focus of each Eucharistic celebration. 

He is present here as the Bread of Life, a personal encounter with the very life of God. The author of our second reading today pleads for the kind of authenticity in Christian living that flows from the Eucharist we celebrate: a community marked by “humility… gentleness… patience… the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.” 

Only with God’s help can we become this reality – which is what we pray in our Eucharistic Prayer.

May God continue to feed us lavishly, and may we gratefully point others to that Living Bread.