Saint Cyril of Jerusalem Catholic Church

For the last few weeks our Sunday gospel comes from Chapter 6 of St. John’s gospel.  This Chapter is call the “Bread of Life Discourse”.  The first verse of today’s gospel is the climax of what Jesus has been saying since verse 32, and adds to the note that the bread that Jesus will give for the life of the world is His flesh.

If Jesus had stopped her, we could understand Him to mean that His flesh would be given over in crucifixion to bring life to the world.  While His words carry this meaning, what Jesus says next gives them an additional depth of meaning.

Jesus’ listeners take His words very literally and thereby misunderstand them.  Jesus is speaking of His flesh as real food and His blood as real drink, but as given in the Eucharist.  Through eating His flesh and drinking His blood eucharistically we are joined with Him and abide (remain) in Him, thereby entering into the life shared by the Father and the Son.  This life is eternal life: “whoever eats this bread will live forever”.  Jesus emphasizes that He is our only access to eternal life.  If we do not eat His flesh and drink His blood we do not have life, but it we do share in His flesh and blood we have eternal  life and will be raised up on the last day.

Jesus had invited His listeners to come to Him and believe in Him as the bread of life, and He now invites them to partake of this bread eucharistically, receiving the body and blood that will be offered on the cross for the life of the world.  Jesus does not simply want to teach us about Himself, the He lives in us and we in Him.  This He accomplishes by giving Himself to us in the Eucharist.  The word became flesh– and He offers His flesh to us as the bread of life.

WHAT A GIFT WE HAVE IN THE EUCHARIST!

God Bless,

Msgr. Powell

 

WHOEVER EATS THIS BREAD WILL LIVE FOREVER

Jesus proclaims, “I AM the bread of life” – the first of a series of “I AM” sayings in John’s Gospel in which Jesus both proclaims Himself to be the I AM (God), and identifies some aspect of how He brings us eternal life.  Whoever comes to Jesus and believes in Jesus will never again hunger or thirst; their basic needs of life will be satisfied by Jesus.  Our most basic life – need is not food or water but preservation from death.  And that is what Jesus grants to those who believe in Him: they will have eternal life and be raised up on the last day.

To believe in Jesus and accept the revelation He brings means to recognize that He has come from God.  Because He has come from God, He can reveal God to us – and He alone can do this, because no one else has ever seen God.  Belief is the key that opens the door to eternal life; belief that Jesus of Nazareth is the Word become flesh, the Son of God.

John’s Gospel puts great emphasis on having faith in Jesus – believing that He is who He says He is – because He is the source of eternal life: “Whoever believes has eternal life.”  To believe as Jesus asks us to believe is real faith – faith that is itself a gift from God.

As we come to Eucharist today, let us ask our Lord for true faith in Him.  Let us ask Him to open our eyes to the full reality of who He is and what He calls us to do in our life.

God Bless,

Msgr. Powell