Food that endures for eternity

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

Since last week, our lectionary seems to have taken a detour, a necessary one, away from the Gospel of St Mark. For the next few weeks, we will be treated to the Bread of Life Discourse found in Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel which follows John’s account of the miracle of multiplication of loaves and feeding of the multitude. If the account of the Last Supper in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke provide us with the “when” was the sacrament of the Eucharist instituted, John Chapter 6 provides us with the answer to “what” and “why” was it instituted. But all three synoptic gospels also provide us with a similar clue as to “what” was instituted when they all recorded our Lord as saying: “this is my Body” and “this is my Blood.” Of course, it can be argued and has been argued by the Protestants that our Lord was speaking metaphorically. But to dispel all doubts about what our Lord meant by these words, we have to turn to John’s gospel and to this chapter in particular.

The discourse begins with a parallel made between the manna which God gave to Moses and the Israelites in the desert and what our Lord had just done when He miraculously multiplied the loaves of bread and fish to feed the multitude. But that is not the only parallel. In fact, the underlying parallel which the people were seeking was to determine if our Lord was the new Moses.

Last week’s gospel concluded by telling us that the Lord literally had to run away from the crowds before they could make Him their king. And our gospel today begins by telling us that the people were looking for the Lord to see if He was the earthly messiah they were waiting for who would be a king and lead them; for they believed that when the messiah would come, he would act like a New Moses who would feed and save them from their oppressors as Moses did. But when they found the Lord, He immediately dispelled their expectations, “I tell you most solemnly, you are not looking for me because you have seen the signs but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat.” If we were part of the crowd, these words would have stung us to the core. It is true that we are often ruled by our stomach and other baser instincts than we are of spiritual values. Case in point – if you want a good turnout at a church event, make sure you provide good food – preferably free!

Our Lord, continues to clarify His true mission and what He can really offer them: “Do not work for food that cannot last, but work for food that endures to eternal life, the kind of food the Son of Man is offering you, for on him the Father, God himself, has set his seal.” Our Lord is telling them that they shouldn’t seek Him out just because they want more earthly food, or an earthly king and leader, but they should actually come looking for Him because He can give them food that endures to eternal life; which only He alone can give.

Not satisfied, His audience, just like the Israelites of old, asks our Lord for another sign, they want Him to work another miracle to show and prove that He is the Messiah in order for them to believe, apparently the multiplication of the loaves wasn’t enough and they were simply not listening to what He had just said! The benchmark for this sign which they demanded must be one that can rival the miracle of manna from heaven which Moses had performed. For them, there has been no greater miracle in Israel’s collective history than the mysterious bread which seemed to have dropped miraculously from the heavens and saved them from extinction by starvation. And in their limited reasoning, they saw Moses as the hero behind this miracle.

Our Lord then makes a correction and provides this reality check - Moses isn’t the real catalyst of this miracle but God. Our Lord clarifies: “it is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven, the true bread; for the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” It seems this time, our Lord’s words hit home, and His audience consumed it lock stock and barrel. They immediately request that He gives them this bread always.

But nothing prepared them for what is to follow. They were not ready for our Lord’s next explanation. “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never be hungry; he who believes in me will never thirst.” It is clear that He was not going to repeat the miracle of manna but rather offering Himself as the solution. This is the first time that our Lord introduces Himself as “the bread of life” but it would not be His last time. It would serve as a refrain throughout the discourse in Chapter 6 and we will get to hear it again for the next couple of weeks.

So, in contrast to the story of Moses and the manna in the first reading, we have in the gospel something far greater and more superior. It must be noted that God did not just provide bread as food for the Israelites in their sojourn in the desert. He also gave them meat, in the form of the flesh of quails. The manna appeared in the morning and the quails in the evening. Now, let us look at what our Lord did, not just in the miracle of multiplication but also at the Last Supper when He instituted the Eucharist. Our Lord uses the understanding of the Manna to teach that God wants to give us in the Eucharist, the new Manna, the true bread from Heaven, which will give life to the world. For it is not just a coincidence that the miraculous food God regularly gave the Israelites in the desert was flesh and bread. In the Eucharist, though it has the appearance of bread, it is truly the body and blood, the living flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And like the Manna, the Eucharist will not be ordinary bread, or bread that they would recognise, but unlike the manna it will not be temporary, only last for a time, but the Eucharist, the new bread of life, will endure to eternal life. And so, the people ask our Lord to “give them this bread always”. And our Lord answers them, “I am the bread of life”. Jesus is declaring to all the world, “I am the new Manna, I am the bread that will be given for the life the world.”

And so, my brothers and sisters, even though the Eucharist looks like ordinary bread, it is not. And although some might think our Lord was only speaking metaphorically, He wasn’t. It is clear that the Manna, just as the Eucharist, was not a metaphor, or a figure of speech. For the Israelites testified that the Manna was not a metaphor, but it was real food that was eaten and which sustained them until they reached the Promised Land. For us, the Eucharist too is real food, but in a so much more astounding way. The Eucharist is the Body of Christ and it will continue to sustain us spiritually in this earthly exile of ours until we reach our heavenly homeland. So let us take the Lord at His word, let us believe by faith that Jesus is as He says He is, the bread of life which will give eternal life to the world, and that anyone who comes to Him and believes in Him will no longer hunger or thirst for any other paltry substitute.