BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (# 37)
19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
BIBLE READINGS
I Kgs 19: 4-8 // Eph 4:30 – 5:2 // Jn 6:41-51
One of our Sisters who had worked as a missionary in Canada suffered a series of strokes when she returned to the Philippines. The third stroke was bilateral and was so extensive that it left her paralyzed from the shoulders to her lower limbs. She lost her power of speech and all she could do was cry, whimper and groan. She had to be fed through a naso-gastric tube and assisted in everything. Terror and anguish were etched grimly on her face. She could not believe that such a tragedy had happened to her. After an intense period of anger and denial, her features started to relax. While doing my nursing care for her one day, I noticed that she was unusually quiet and pensive. I stood beside her bed and, gazing directly on her weary eyes, spoke slowly: “Sister, do you want to receive Communion? If you do, please turn your head to one side.” She responded with such vigor that I was afraid her head would snap. We requested a priest to come and celebrate Mass in her room. The paralyzed Sister received Communion for the first time after suffering the third stroke. Finally, she was nourished with the body and blood of Jesus in the sacramental form of the Eucharistic bread. She is now in her fourth year, still immobilized and completely helpless, but drawing spiritual strength from the Eucharist. Everyday she listens to a televised or broadcast Mass, after which, she would receive Communion. Nourished by Jesus, the Bread of life, the infirm Sister is veritably a sacrificial offering pleasing to God and a source of spiritual energy for our religious community and the entire Church.
The Gospel reading of this Sunday’s liturgy (cf. Jn 6:41-51) continues the profoundly moving Eucharistic catechesis taken from the evangelist John. Today’s passage is situated in a drama of unbelief and refusal According to John, “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.’” (verses 41-21). In a dispute over Jesus’ origin, the Jews murmured their incredulity and suspicion. Indeed, their unbelief evoked the obduracy shown by the Israelites in the desert and God’s magnanimous response to their hardheadedness. Israel’s murmuring provoked the gift of water (Ex 15:24) and of manna (Ex 16:2,7,12). The murmuring of Jesus’ audience provoked an equally magnanimous response: the promise of the Bread of Life, actualized in Jesus.
According to Neal Flanagan, the best way to understand the eucharistic discourse in the gospel of John, chapter 6, is to consider it as a midrash, that is, a homily centered on a biblical text, which in this case, is Jn 6:31: “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” Indeed, in the last two Sundays, the truth has been reiterated that Jesus is the bread come down from heaven. As the ultimate and superior bread-giver, he surpasses Moses and the prophetic events in Israel’s saving history. In today’s Gospel reading, the liturgical assembly is invited to focus its attention on Jesus as the personification of the gift of heavenly bread; “to believe” and “to eat”. The true bread of heaven is Jesus himself, the Bread of Life.
Patiently continuing his catechetical dialogue with the contentious crowd, Jesus solemnly asserted: “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 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” (Jn 6:48-51).
The benefactor, Jesus Christ, who is both the giver and the gift, nourishes us through his teaching. As the Word-made-flesh and as the Wisdom of God, he lays out for us a rich banquet of spiritual nourishment. He offers himself to us as the bread of the Word, the saving revelation of God’s infinite love for us, and fulfills what is written in the prophets: “They shall all be taught by God” (cf. v. 45). As the bread of the Word coming from heaven, the proper response is “to believe” in him (cf. verses 35, 36, 40, 47). Neal Flanagan explains: “What this means is that this is a faith nourishment. Jesus is bread from heaven, feeding all believers, in the same sense that Old Testament wisdom nourished all who accepted it (cf. Prov 9:1-5). We might call this type of feeding sapiential.”
In the last part of today’s Gospel reading (cf. verses 48-51), the topic shifts from Jesus as revealer of the Father, who has come down from heaven, to Jesus as the giver and gift of the Eucharist. The liturgical assembly is being led to contemplate, not just the “sapiential” nourishment offered by Jesus, but the “sacramental” nourishment that he gives of his own flesh and blood. Jesus’ magnanimous gift includes the “Eucharistic” nourishment provided by his Spirit-filled and glorified body. The biblical scholar, Neal Flanagan, asserts: “Jesus is first of all the giver of the bread, a new Moses. He is also the bread of wisdom and revelation who nourishes all who come to him in faith. He is finally, the Eucharistic source of eternal life for all who eat and drink the flesh and blood of the heavenly and glorified Son of Man.”
The Bread of Life, Jesus Christ, who nourishes us with his Word and the Eucharistic bread, satisfies our most intense hunger for the fullness of life. We need to feed on him continually who is offered to us in multiple ways as spiritual nourishment. According to Geoffrey Preston: “But however we eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, whether sacramentally in the Eucharist, or at the table of his Word, or by care for his suffering members, it is always that it cannot be done once and for all. We have to go on doing it. The Eucharist is the bread and the wine which feeds desire and longing, longing for the coming of God.” In a marvelous and paradoxical way, the heavenly Bread that satisfies our spiritual hunger for meaning in life and our eternal destiny provokes a longing for the coming of God’s kingdom. The Bread of Life impels us to share the fullness of life we have received, through Word and sacrament, with the people and the world around us.
Leader: Bread of Life, Jesus Christ, you feed us with your abundant teaching. You are the bread of wisdom and revelation who nourishes all who come to you in faith. Fill our empty hearts with your life-giving Word. Strengthened at the table of your divine wisdom, may we break and share the Bread of your Word with others.
Assembly: You are the Bread of Life. You are the living Bread come down from heaven. We love you; we believe in you; we want to be nourished by you now and at the eternal banquet.
Leader: Bread of Life, Jesus Christ, you are the Eucharistic source of eternal life. You feed us with your flesh and blood at the sacramental banquet of your heavenly and glorified Body. Nourished by your sacred body and blood and united with your paschal sacrifice, may we be transformed into “Eucharistic bread”, broken and shared for the life of others.
Assembly: You are the Bread of Life. You are the living Bread come down from heaven. We love you; we believe in you; we want to be nourished by you now and at the eternal banquet.
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“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.” (Jn 6:51)
Prepared by: Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang, PDDM