Fr. Manuel João, comboni missionary
Sunday Reflection
from the womb of my whale, ALS
Our cross is the pulpit of the Word
I Am the Bread of Life!
Year B – Ordinary Time – 18th Sunday
John 6:24-35: “I am the Bread of Life”
After the story of the multiplication of the loaves, today, and for the next three Sundays, we will continue reading chapter 6 of the Gospel of John, a lengthy catechesis on the significance of the “sign” (miracle) performed by Jesus. After returning from the vicinity of Tiberias, we are now in Capernaum, in the synagogue (v. 59). Let’s recall the context. After the miracle, “Jesus, knowing that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, withdrew again to the mountain by himself,” while his disciples, at evening, got into the boat and started across the sea to Capernaum. The liturgy skipped this second section of the chapter (6:16-21), which tells the story of Jesus walking on the water to reach his disciples on the boat.
A Dialogue Discourse
The reflection on the “sign” is presented in the form of a dialogue between the crowd and Jesus. We find three questions and a request from the crowd, to which Jesus responds with corresponding interventions.
1. “Rabbi, when did you come here?” The crowd was surprised because they had not found Jesus where he had been the previous day, near Tiberias.
– Jesus, instead of answering their question, goes straight to the intention behind their search: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves”; and he concludes with an exhortation: “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life.”
2. “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” The crowd asks for clarification on “working,” that is, what works to perform.
– Jesus responds that only one work is necessary: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
3. “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?” Since Jesus claims total trust in his person, the crowd asks for an additional sign, a greater work than what Jesus had done. Jesus had fed a multitude of five thousand just once, whereas, according to them, Moses had fed an entire people with manna for forty years!
– To this, Jesus responds: “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.” That is, not Moses, but the Father, who had given the manna in the past, now offers them the “true bread,” truly “come down from heaven”!
This first part of the dialogue concludes with the crowd’s “prayer”: “Lord, give us this bread always.” But what bread?! Jesus responds with a revelation: “I am the bread of life!” I AM (“Egō eimì” in Greek) is an allusion to the name of God!
So far, it would seem that the crowd shows a certain receptiveness. After all, they sought Jesus, asked for explanations, and formulated a kind of “prayer.” However, there is a persistent underlying ambiguity. While Jesus tries to lead them to a spiritual, profound understanding of the miraculous “sign,” the crowd remains fixated on material bread. We will see what happens in the next three sundays. We cannot judge or condemn them because they are merely a reflection of our reality!
Delving into the Sign
Let us delve into the “sign,” asking the Father to draw us to Jesus. Next Sunday, he will tell us: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (v. 44). We will deepen this work through three words or concepts that summarise the dialogue between Jesus and the crowd: seeking, work, and bread.
1. SEEKING. The story begins with seeking. The crowd seeks Jesus and finds him in Capernaum. Seeking is a natural attitude for those who experience their own neediness in various forms. It is also the attitude of the believer thirsty for God: “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you” (Psalm 63). The theme of seeking is dear to St. John. Jesus’ first words are: “What do you seek?” addressed to the two who follow him (John 1:38). By denouncing the inauthenticity of the crowd’s search, Jesus also challenges each of us. What do I seek in my relationship with Christ? Simply help, a benefit, a grace, or a consolation? Or do I truly seek to establish an authentic bond of love and trust with him? Our answer may seem almost obvious, but it is not. Only a continuous and sincere examination of our deepest motivations will advance a long, arduous, and sometimes even painful work of purification.
2. WORK. The only work of the believer is to seek, know, and love their Lord more and more. Every day we toil to earn our daily bread. A similar commitment should be put into knowing the Lord through God’s Word, prayer, and reflection on life’s events. The day I have not grown in the knowledge of the Lord is a wasted day!
3. BREAD. Bread is the central theme of the readings. It is mentioned countless times in the first reading, the psalm, and the gospel. What kind of bread is it? Yes, it also refers to material bread because when bread is lacking, freedom is easily lost. This is well portrayed in the first reading (Exodus 16) where Israel longs for the time of slavery when they could eat meat and bread to their fill. For the sake of eating, laborers allow themselves to be exploited by gang masters. For the sake of eating, many young women are forced into prostitution on the streets of our cities. For the sake of eating, we sell our dignity, like Esau for a bowl of lentils!…
But “man does not live by bread alone”! God’s Word invites us to become aware of the different kinds of hunger in our hearts and how and with what we are satisfying them. Jesus offers himself as the “Bread of Life” that satisfies the hunger and thirst for life that we carry within us. Jesus is not yet speaking of the Eucharist but of himself as the WORD come down from heaven. “The Word became flesh” (John 1:14). We can then truthfully pray like the crowd in the gospel: “Lord, give us this bread always,” the Bread that is you, the Word of the Father, come down from Heaven!
Fr. Manuel João Pereira Correia MCCJ
Verona, 2nd August 2024
