19th Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)

 

Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (B) [Jn 6:41-51]

11.08.2024

The Word of God as the Bread of Life

Readings: (1)1 Kings 19:4-8 (2) Eph 4:30-5:2

1.    Theme in brief

Our hunger for God’s word

2.    Focus Statement:  

As bread is essential for physical life, coming to Jesus in faith and listening to the Word of God taught by him, are essential to be drawn towards him and get nourishment for our divine or spiritual life.

3.    Explanation of the text

In today’s gospel passage Jesus claims to be the one who is needed for anyone to have divine life (or eternal life) and sustain that life. When the Jews fail to respond to him with faith, he challenges them to stop grumbling or complaining and start believing in him. Their grumbling at his claim to be the “bread of life that came down from heaven” (6:41) reflects the grumbling of their ancestors against Moses in the wilderness. The text tells us the reasons why “the Jews” (read the unbelieving Jews, not all the Jews) reject Jesus, and by rejecting him, how they reject the supernatural life offered by him. The first reason is they judge him purely from human standards. According to “the Jews,” anybody who has come from heaven would not have earthly parents. They very well know his earthly father and mother (6:42). Since they know that he is Joseph’s son from Nazareth, they think he cannot be from heaven as he claims (6:41-42). Because of their prejudices and over-familiarity with his family background, they reject his claim of divine origin. They know his father and mother but are totally ignorant of the Father who sent him (6:44). Thus, the second reason for their rejection of him is their lack of faith in him and in his teaching.

Jesus urges them not to be grumblers and complainers like their ancestors, but instead respond to him in faith by accepting his teaching. He reveals to them the significance of the previous “sign” of feeding the multitude with bread. He tells them it signifies who he actually is, that is, his true identity:  He is the bread of life – one who shares God’s own supernatural life with believers and continues to nourish that divine life not only in this earthly life but also till they will be “raised on the last day” (6:44). By this promise Jesus gives them the hope of resurrection in the age to come.

Next, Jesus teaches in the givern text an important lesson on what faith is. Spiritual and catechetical experts put it this way: “Faith is both divine sovereignty and human responsibility” or “Faith involves both an element of predestination and a free decision.” First of all, faith is the Father’s work or action (Jn 6:29). According to Jesus, the Father draws (literally ‘drags’) people to Jesus through his teaching, or the Father teaches them through Jesus (6:44). Anyone who listens to the Father and is willing to be taught and guided by his Word comes to Jesus (6:45). Those who come to Jesus in faith will listen to God’s Word spoken by him. Naturally, such a person will be drawn to Jesus. Here we get the combination of the divine and the human roles in a person's coming to faith – God’s drawing and human response or co-operation. Jesus’ sayings here imply that only those who are drawn to him in faith can believe in his heavenly or divine origin. It is faith that enables anyone to see him beyond his earthly origins. The believer not only encounters God through Jesus but actually comes to share in God’s own life, because one who has seen Jesus has seen the Father (Jn14:9).

Jesus insists that the ‘bread of life’ (6:48) he speaks of is a food that sustains and preserves divine life and prevents ‘death’ (6:50). Of course, he speaks of a spiritual death. It refers to the drying up of divine life in a believer, or his/her separation from God now and for ever. He contrasts it with the manna eaten by their ancestors, who nevertheless died. By repeatedly saying, “I am the living bread” (6:51), Jesus is saying: As bread is essential for physical life, coming to him in faith, putting their trust in him and listening to his Word of life is essential for the nourishment of divine life in believers. The Jews, who ate the manna in the wilderness, though were physically nourished, eventually died; but those who receive him who is real Bread will live forever. To refuse the invitation offered by Jesus is equal to resisting God’s grace and missing his life. That is equal to spiritual death (6:50).

4.    Application to life                     

In today’s gospel there is some confusion and overlapping of Jesus’ teaching on the Bread of Life: whether, by Bread of Life, he means his teaching (God’s Word), or the Eucharist (as Sacrament).  Though there are Eucharistic overtones even in today’s gospel (cf. 6:48-51), since next Sunday’s text speaks directly about it, today we stick to the understanding of God’s Word as Bread of life. We arrive at this meaning from the strong terms used in today’s gospel text: “coming to Jesus” in faith; being “drawn by the Father” towards him; “hearing and learning from the Father”; and being “taught by God” (6:44-45). Therefore, let us today concentrate on the Word of God that draws us towards Jesus and nourishes the divine or spiritual life in us. Just as food sustains life, so also Jesus’ Word (which is God’s own Word) is spiritual nourishment that awakens faith in us and sustains the supernatural life we receive at Baptism. Jesus is ‘Bread’ from heaven because he has come from the Father as the Wisdom and Revealer of his glory, love, mercy and truth in order to nourish spiritually those who come to him in faith. He promises those who are nourished by his teaching that they will live for ever and he fills them with the hope of raising them up on the last day.

Like “the Jews” in Jesus’ days, our own pride and prejudices can block the fruits of the Word of God in us. Like them we too fail to see beyond what we "know" to be true, but are ignorant of God’s ways and work in our as well as in other people’s life. Quite often we are ignorant of what God wants from us or to which direction he wants to take us. God’s Word becomes a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Ps 119:105) taking away our ignorance about his ways and will. St. Ambrose once said, “When I pray, I speak to God, but when I read or listen to the Word of God, it is God who speaks to me.” When we accept God’s Word in faith and reflect on it, we come to know what his will is for us today, and we respond to it in faith. When we accept his Word in humility, total obedience and submission, a single sentence of the Scripture can completely change our life as it happened to St. Francis Xavier. His life totally changed when he reflected on: “What will it profit a person to gain the whole world and forfeit his life” (Mk 8:36). During my ministry for the alcoholics, one of them gave this testimony about why he decided to attend my de-addiction camp. While reading the Bible one day just for curiosity and knowledge, he hit upon a sentence: “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones….it would be better for you if a millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Mt 18:6). He was terrorizing his little children in a drunken state so much that he thought he was fit to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied to his neck. This word made him admit his helplessness before God and submit himself to his power. Today he is sober for about 30 years. Praise the Lord!

The Word of God is given to us as a spiritual food to satisfy our hunger for love, peace, truth, justice, fellowship, unity, etc. Jesus teaches and instructs us daily through his Word. By hearing and believing in his Word, we open ourselves to be taught by God himself, as quoted by Jesus in today’s gospel from the prophetic writings (6:45). He enlightens our minds and influences our thoughts. When we listen to the Scripture in faith, as Jesus says in today’s gospel, it is the Father who draws us to his will. But there is a condition put by Jesus: “Whoever believes….” Faith is a person’s free response to God who reveals himself. As we have noted above, faith is a combination of divine attraction through revelation and human response to a revealing God. It is a conscious submission of a person to the divine pull or attraction through Jesus Christ. Faith is not possible: unless we are drawn or dragged into faith by God; and unless we accept God’s offer freely by coming to Jesus and believing in his Word. Like some disciples (as John’s gospel says) who sought after Jesus with right motive, to be taught by him, we too must seek him in the Scripture in faith and approach it with a humble submission and repentant heart. Like the Jewish authorities, we quite often refuse to believe in Jesus’ Word and reject it; thus we put up resistance to his grace. Like Jewish resistance, our resistance too defeats God’s way of pulling or attracting us towards Jesus. To reject Jesus’ Word is to reject him and to reject him is to reject divine or eternal life offered by him.

Today Jesus draws you and me right now through his Word. He attracts even grumblers and complainers. The grumbling of Israelites against Moses, the servant of God, was a sign of their lack of faith in God and his promises. As married persons or as priests and religious we have made promises to God to be faithful to him and to our states of life. After making perpetual promises (the Religious Institutes call them perpetual vows) if we become perpetual grumblers and complainers in our families and communities even for smaller mistakes/ defects/ negligence/ hurts caused by others, we project ourselves as Israelites of old – those lacking faith in God’s promises, providence and care. The older we become the stronger this habit could become, if we are not on our guard.

Today’s text hints at Jesus’ teaching (Word) as the Bread of life. Which life? It is understood that in John’s gospel, Jesus refers to eternal life or divine life, though this adjective is not used. As in other places (cf. 3:36; 5:24), in today’s text also Jesus speaks of “eternal life” in the present tense when he says: “Whoever believes has eternal life” (6:47). The word “eternal life” in John’s gospel does not refer to an endless quantity or duration of present human existence, but to the quality of life that God lives. It is nothing but a participation or share in God’s own life which we receive at baptism. It is called eternal, because God himself is eternal. Hence, his divine life cannot end with death. Through faith in Christ we get connected to Jesus and through him to the Father. Hence, John says that through faith, the life of God which is in Jesus flows into believers and they experience it to some extent in the present life itself. In today’s gospel, Jesus says that those who are nourished by his teaching (Word) and submit to him in faith can experience here and now glimpses of the holiness, selfless love, mercy, joy, peace and truth which are characteristic of the life of God.

In another sense eternal life also refers to a change in the quality of life, which believers must live because of their faith in Christ or persona bonding with him. If our faith is strong and deep, it must influence the quality of our life; hence the quality of our life must be different from others. When the quality of our life changes, people may notice some traces of God’s own qualities in us. They are glimpses of eternal life here on earth. When we exhibit a positive thinking in the midst of so much negativity all around us; when our love is pure and not limited, exclusive and conditional; when we move from coldness and indifference to people and activities to a life of great zeal and enthusiasm; when we show intense desire to learn more and purify ourselves; when we think and live according to God’s way of thinking and not always according to our way of thinking; other believers can naturally notice the sparks of eternal life in us. Then one who believes has eternal life, though its full flowering will take place after death.

In order to experience the impact of God’s Word on our attitudes and way of thinking, we should not read it as we read a novel or newspaper or listen to TV news merely for knowledge and information – though both are needed. We should read it with the eyes of faith and try to understand what God tells us here and now and what his will is for us today in our particular situation. If taken in faith, God’s word guides, enlightens, awakens, consoles, strengthens, warns, reproves and nourishes us spiritually. In my life, when I feel it is impossible to bear a thing, I repeat: “Everything is possible for God” (Lk 18:27); when I am too tired and think I cannot do a thing, I repeat: “I can do everything through him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13); when I feel terribly afraid, I repeat, “It is I; do not be afraid” (Mt 14:27); when I feel lonely, I repeat: “Lord, to whom can I go; you have the words of eternal life” (6:68). I have discovered this type of repetition while walking and working alone is a big antidote to these negative and life-demoting feelings. You too are welcome to do so and discover the life-giving power of God’s Word.

5.    Response to God’s Word

Do we really use God’s Word to satisfy our hunger for his values and get direction or guidance to our life? Do we go to Jesus in faith to be taught or instructed by him? Does the Word of God help us to improve the quality of our life? Like “the Jews” do we often refuse to believe or reject Jesus’ Word? Do we put up resistance to God’s grace? By rejecting Jesus’ Word do we reject the gift of eternal life offered by him? Who or what nourishes us: Jesus and his Word or materialistic values?

6.    A prayer

Lord Jesus, you are the living bread which sustains me in this life and in the life to come. Your Word is lamp for my footsteps. Teach and guide me through your holy word. May I always hunger for the bread of your Word and find it as a source of guidance, consolation, enlightenment, strength, warning, awakening, rebuke and nourishment for spiritual journey. Amen.