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.

Sunday Meditation: The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes

The Gospel readings now shift for the next few weeks from the Gospel of Mark to that of John.  Today begins a series of readings that will culminate with the Bread of Life discourse, but we start with the feeding of the five thousands.  The feeding of thousands is actually in all four Gospels, and it occurs twice in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew.  So there are actually six passages where Jesus multiplies loaves of bread to feed the multitude.  That’s quite interesting.  Bread is certainly the most important nourishing element in the New Testament.  “Give us our daily bread” Jesus teaches us to pray.

 

Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee.

A large crowd followed him,

because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.

Jesus went up on the mountain,

and there he sat down with his disciples.

The Jewish feast of Passover was near.

When Jesus raised his eyes

and saw that a large crowd was coming to him,

he said to Philip,

"Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?"

He said this to test him,

because he himself knew what he was going to do.

Philip answered him,

"Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough

for each of them to have a little."

One of his disciples,

Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,

"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish;

but what good are these for so many?"

Jesus said, "Have the people recline."

Now there was a great deal of grass in that place.

So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.

Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,

and distributed them to those who were reclining,

and also as much of the fish as they wanted.

When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,

"Gather the fragments left over,

so that nothing will be wasted."

So they collected them,

and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments

from the five barley loaves

that had been more than they could eat.

When the people saw the sign he had done, they said,

"This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world."

Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone.

~Jn 6:1-15

 

Fr. Geoffrey Plant provides the entire context of this passage.

Fr. Geoffrey really covers a broad range of elements of this passage. But there are still other angles that we could further explore here.  Why did Jesus single out Phillip to test him?  (Phillip was from Bethsaida, which is right near the where the miracle occurred; Phillip would know where to buy bread.)  Why was it a little boy who was carrying food and not the vast adults?  Why nothing be wasted?  He could multiply more.  Did they eat the fish raw or did they set up to cook it?  Most of these questions I can’t answer but it shows how much depth there is to the story.

 

Sunday Meditation: “Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted.”

 

Let’s get back to a John Michael Talbot song this week.  “Gift of Finest Wheat” seems very appropriate.  Is there a difference between wheat and barley? 

 

 

Talbot did write this hymn but is his rendition.  Robert E. Kreutz  was the composer.