Bread which is Flesh

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

It is said that the New Testament is concealed in the Old and the Old Testament is revealed in the New. This is never clearer than when studying the Eucharist throughout Scripture. The juxtaposition of the gospel with the story of the Exodus continues. As the Israelites complained in the desert that they had no food to eat nor water to drink, the crowds here begin to complain about our Lord’s audacious claims that He is “the bread that came down from heaven.” It must be noted at this stage that the crowds’ main objection was not that our Lord claimed to be the new Manna.

Their main objection at this stage, as in other parts of the gospel, had to do with His origins. The Lord claims to have come from heaven. But this was a necessary claim in the schema of claims which our Lord had made and will be making. Only by coming from God, could He reveal things about God known to Him alone and only if He came from God could He offer them life here and in the hereafter. But these claims were too much for His audience to stomach. Their incredulity is supported by the fact that they thought they knew His parents, His family, and His all-too human origins. “Who is this upstart who now claims to come from heaven?”

Before our Lord moves to explaining how He is indeed the Bread from heaven which they must eat if they wish to enjoy everlasting life, He provides a fourfold path to receiving His message. They must acknowledge that they are being taught by God, hear His teaching and learn from it and finally, believe in Him. This Bread from heaven sounds like the Divine Logos, the Word, introduced by St John in his prologue to his gospel: “In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Jesus is indeed the Word of God and our response must be to acknowledge that He comes from the Father, listen to Him, learn from Him and finally believe in Him.

So, far this claim that our Lord makes is still somewhat acceptable. For Israel, the manna as food provided by God Himself had stopped when they took possession of their land, but a new “bread from heaven” continued in the Law - God’s revelation to His people. The Israelites believed that through the Law, God was literally “feeding” His people. In their minds, our Lord was merely applying the same principle to Himself. In other words, they thought that our Lord was merely suggesting to them to consume His wisdom as spiritual nourishment.

But the Word is not just a concept to be heard like the Old Law. This Word has become flesh and here our Lord proceeds to lay down the foundation of His Eucharistic theology - this Word is also the Bread of Life from heaven and “anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.” In this way, our Lord is saying that He has not come to annul God’s former gifts, whether it be the manna or the Law, but to bring them to completion in Himself. The manna in the desert, though it appeared miraculously, could not offer eternal life, but our Lord being “the living bread which has come down from heaven” can now offer them this gift. He is the perfection of the gift of God to Israel.

Our Lord dismisses all suggestions that He is speaking metaphorically with the last statement which closes today’s segment of the discourse: “the bread that I shall give is my flesh!” “My flesh!” If our Lord had kept to speaking of Himself as Bread, they would not have had such a violent reaction but now when the Lord speaks of His flesh as real food (and next week, He introduces His blood as real drink), the very thought of cannibalism was the most revolting thing imaginable for a people who were obsessed with dietary restrictions and ritual purity.

His listeners were stupefied because now they understood Jesus literally—and correctly. In next week’s installment, He will again repeat His words, but with even greater emphasis. When our Lord refers to Himself as a vine, or a door, or any other metaphor, no one is offended, has trouble understanding, or leaves Him. It is only when He says they must eat of His flesh that many are shocked and compelled to abandon Him. This tells us that the disciples understood our Lord to be speaking literally and not figuratively. Whatever else might be said, the early Church took these words literally. St Justin Martyr, wrote, “Not as common bread or common drink do we receive these; but … both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus” (First Apology 66:1–20). St Cyril calls the Eucharist “the medicine of immortality.”

But this spiritual food which our Lord wishes to give us is also food meant as provision for the journey of life. The scene of Elijah in the first reading being fed by the Angel is often seen by the Church as an Old Testament allegory of the Eucharist, especially when the Eucharist is given as “viaticum.” “Viaticum” literally means food “to take with us on the journey.” The Latin word once denoted the provisions necessary for a person going on a long journey—the clothes, food, and money the traveller would need along the way. The viaticum was vital provision for an uncertain journey. Fittingly, the early Church employed this image to speak of the Eucharist when it was administered to a dying person. The viaticum, the bread of one’s last Communion, was seen as sustenance for Christians on their way from this world into another, “food for passage through death to eternal life.”

The journey of life is never easy. It is often a long trek, sometimes through the bleakest of landscapes, towards the promised land, our Heavenly homeland. Sometimes we give way to the longing for the comforts of culture’s captivity and drown in the world’s materialistic allures. Sometimes we yield to the temptation like Elijah to sit beneath the broom tree of despair and wish for death. But today’s readings remind us that even in our weakest moments, even in our darkest hour, even when we stumble and grumble, even when we sometimes lose sight of the goal, God does not forsake us. Christ continues to feed us with this divine food, giving us strength to endure. It is the food that will serve us “when all else fails.” And so, we do not lay down to die; we walk on, from exile toward home, from shadows and appearances to beholding God face to face.