JESUS IS THE BREAD OF LIFE

 

Homily for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Fr. Ugochukwu Ugwoke ,ISch

Scriptural Texts: Exodus 16:2-4.12-15, Ephesians 4:17.20-24, John 6:24-35

 

The readings of this Sunday continue the discourse started last Sunday on the Bread of Life. In the gospel readings of the past three Sundays, Jesus has been revealing himself to us. He told us that he is the good shepherd who takes compassion on the plight of the sheep (Mark 6:34). As the good shepherd, out of compassion, he teaches the sheep but also feeds them. He demonstrated to us that he feeds the sheep when he multiplied loaves in the gospel reading of last Sunday (John 6:1-15). In the gospel reading of this Sunday, Jesus tells us that he does not simply multiply bread to feed the people but he himself is bread. Jesus is the Bread of Life; he who comes to him shall not hunger, and he who believes in him shall never thirst (John 6:35).

Throughout history, God has always fed his people. God has always cared for and provided the needs of his people. After leading the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt, the people encamped in the desert of Sin. There, they faced hunger and starvation and as a result, they complained and grumbled against their leaders, Moses and Aaron (Exodus 16:2-3). In his goodness, God rained Manna from heaven for their food. The psalmist tells us that God gave the people bread from heaven to eat (Psalm 78:20-25). In providing them with manna, God showed himself a Provident Father. In the manna narrative, what the Israelites had to learn is that food is a gift from God, but man has to use it responsibly. To seek to have more than one needs or to hoard food is to deprive others of their own share.

In the gospel reading, Jesus continues to feed his people. But this time around, he feeds us not with the perishable manna or the physical bread of last Sunday, but with the true and everlasting bread from heaven. Jesus proclaims himself the Bread from heaven of which the manna in the desert was only but a prefiguration. Jesus did not come into the world simply to offer us bread; He came to be Bread. He came to be our sustenance. The manna was a foreshadowing of the supreme sign (John 6:31-35). The manna was an expression of the nourishing presence of God. Manna was something but the bread of life is someone, namely Christ. Manna was a material food that was perishable and which only satisfied physical hunger, temporarily. The bread of life is a spiritual food, imperishable and which gives us spiritual nourishment and everlasting happiness (John 6:27).

Our Christian life is centered on a table where we are fed with the heavenly bread. The Eucharist, the greatest gift of God to mankind is God’s abiding presence amongst us. For us believers, the Eucharist is the source of our joy, food to our souls, and antidote for the entire spiritual ailment. The Eucharist is the pledge of our future resurrection from the dead. In the Eucharist, all our needs and quests are met. As St. Paul tells us in the second reading, our life must reflect the bread of life that we eat. We do this by giving up the old self of our former way of living that is corrupt through deceitful lusts and putting on the new man, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:22-24). Unlike the crowds that were looking for Jesus because of the physical bread, let us work for food that endures to eternal life, and may no earthly desire keep us away from partaking of the bread of life. Amen.