Sunday Meditation: The Bread of Life, Continued, Part III

Jesus’ Bread of Life Discourse is so important that the Church spreads the readings across four weeks, not including the precursor which was the feeding of the multitudes.  So let’s take stock of where we are.  In the Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, we had the “sign” of Jesus’ divinity, the supernatural power to feed the multitudes.  On the Eighteenth Sunday, we had the first part of the Discourse on the Bread of life, connecting Jesus with the Manna from heaven.  On the Nineteenth Sunday we have Jesus saying that He is the living Bread.  Today, the Twentieth Sunday, Jesus tells us His flesh is the Bread of heaven, and that you must eat His flesh and drink His blood to have life.

 

Jesus said to the crowds:

"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."

 

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,

"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

Jesus said to them,

"Amen, amen, I say to you,

unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,

you do not have life within you.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood

has eternal life,

and I will raise him on the last day.

For my flesh is true food,

and my blood is true drink.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood

remains in me and I in him.

Just as the living Father sent me

and I have life because of the Father,

so also the one who feeds on me

will have life because of me.

This is the bread that came down from heaven.

Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,

whoever eats this bread will live forever."

~Jn 6:51-58

This time, Bishop Barron gives the comprehensive exegesis of this passage.   

Now, how does the body and blood of Jesus become what He says in the Eucharist?  Here you will need someone from the Order of Preachers to fully explain it.  Let Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P. from The Thomistic Institute explain the Presence of Jesus’s Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Eucharist.

 

The concepts of substance and accidents can be tricky to understand. I think Fr. Dominic in that video does about as good a job as I have ever seen.  I recommend all The Thomistic Institute videos on explaining the faith.

Sunday Meditation: "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day."

Let’s return to John Michael Talbot for an appropriate hymn, “Gift of Finest Wheat.”

 

This is not an original JMT composition.  It was composed by Robert E. Kreutz.   It is such a beautiful hymn, and I love John Michael’s rendition.