JESUS IS TRULY THE BREAD FROM HEAVEN

HOMILY FOR THE NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR B

Scriptural Texts: 1 Kings 19:4-8, Ephesians 4:30-5:2, John 6:41-51

Fr. Ugochukwu Ugwoke, ISch

There are two occasions in the Bible in which the people rejected Jesus Christ and his teachings for reason that they are familiar with him (an instance of see finish😀). The first was when he came to his hometown, Nazareth and his kinsmen rejected him and questioned how the son of Mary and Joseph could have gained such wisdom and power to teach and perform miracles (Matthew 13:53-58).

The second occasion was what happened in the gospel reading of today. As Jesus continues the bread of life discourse in the gospel according to John, many of the Jews, upon hearing Jesus's claim that he came down from heaven, that he is the true bread, the bread of life, that one who eats of him will never hunger, found this claim hard to believe and murmured against him (John 6:41-42). After all, they knew his parents. He had been born and grew up like everyone else. How can he claim to have come down from heaven? “He is just one of us, and he claims to be someone special?”

The Jews found it hard to see the Son of God in the poor carpenter of Nazareth. They could not see Jesus beyond what they already knew about him- an ordinary man, the son of Joseph, the carpenter. In our own relationship with the Eucharistic Jesus, as ministers and recipients of this sacrament, we often fall into the error of not looking beyond the eucharistic elements to find Jesus, hidden in the bread and wine. Since the Eucharist comes to us in forms perceptible to the bodily senses, we often nurse doubts about the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Let us not be like the Jews. Let us bear in mind that it is only in faith that we can have access to this awesome gift and mystery.

In the Eucharist, Christ gives us himself totally. He comes to us and becomes our bread, our food for that life with God that never ends. Christ's love overcame death. He who is united in faith and love with Christ, will live forever, soul and body, according to the Lord's promise: "I will raise him on the last day."

We attend Mass (offer the Eucharist) and receive Communion again and again; that is a very good and important thing. However, there is a danger of it becoming a matter of routine, something we do just because it is our habit/duty, or just because that is how we were brought up, or just because everyone else goes up to receive Communion. We can kind of forget our wonder at the marvel of this mystery, the awesomeness of receiving Jesus Christ, man and God, as food for us under the appearance of bread.

Dear friend, Jesus is truly the Bread of Life that has come down from heaven to give life to us. Each time we receive the Eucharist, we should strive to receive with the same freshness, devotion, reverence, and preparedness of that of a child who receives Holy Communion for the first time, who has prepared himself a year long to receive, and who was waited with longing for the great day.

Jesus wants us to be like Him. That is why He gives us His body as food. By receiving him, we become what we consume. Therefore, preparing ourselves well to receive Holy Communion with love and devotion makes a great difference to what Christ can do for us and in us. If we receive Christ in Holy Communion without preparing ourselves to receive him worthily, without giving him a second thought, without using the occasion to talk with him, thank him, ask him for what we need, it is no surprise if Holy Communion does not seem to bring much change in our lives, to give us this marvelous nourishment and strength to go through difficult times like Elijah in the first reading, to make us better and more loving persons.

May the Eucharist continue to nourish us and keep us safe for eternal life.