18th Sunday: The Word became Flesh

The Gospel of John proclaims in Chapter 1, “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth." Jn. 1:14. The rest of the Gospel of John explains what the invisible God, made visible did for us. He could be seen and touched. He ate with his disciples. He healed and taught. In his suffering and death, he forgave. He was most completely revealed in his death and resurrection. He was a Jew and he cannot be understood outside of God’s revelation to the people of Israel. That is why in our Liturgy of the Word we always proclaim the wisdom made known to the people of Israel. Today, the scripture describes how the visible God gave very visible aid to his people in the desert.

Manna in the desert
Exodus recounts how the Israelites were led by God from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the desert on the way to the promised land. But, as with human beings in general, they began to gripe. "Would that we had died at the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!" Ex. 16   In response to their griping, God fed the Israelites with manna.
 
The Israelites were instructed to gather only enough manna for the day. If it was held over an extra day, it would be infested with worms. The only exception was for the Sabbath; manna would not spoil on that day. Ex. 16:23–24.

The prayer Jesus taught, the Our Father, brings this understanding of sustenance and God together when he taught us, “Our Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread; and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us; and lead us not into temptation.” Lk. 11:2-4. In Jesus prayer, he links wisdom about God, his Kingdom, forgiveness and  daily bread. God’s wisdom and the Bread of Life are one reality.  So in Mass, the study of scripture precedes our celebration of the Eucharist, the Bread of Life. The invisible reality of God, the kingdom and forgiveness are linked to our daily bread.
 

Jesus as the Bread of Life

Last week in the Gospel, we heard the story of Our Lord feeding 5,000 men on a mountain. Part of that crowd followed Jesus and wanted to know more. Jesus told them, “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal. "
So they said to him,
"What can we do to accomplish the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent." Jn. 6:25. St. Paul expresses our Lord’s words in his Letter to the Romans, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9. To do God’s work is to do what Jesus does. We experience Christ in faith, hope and love.  As St. Paul would describe, "put on our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 13:14 Those are all invisible realities that are only manifest if we put them into action.
 
Belief is what you do.  So, then the crowd asks Jesus, “What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat." Jn. 6. Jesus told them, "I am the bread of life;
 whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst." Jn. 6:35 Every human being has an appetite for wisdom, understanding and food. Our hunger and thirst of the spirit, is satisfied only by a fitting relationship with the source of all, God. Psalm 23, Isaiah 49:10, Proverbs 9:5, or Sirach 15:3. That presence is given to us in scripture and sacrament.
 
The Bread of Life and the Mass
The liturgy is not just a meal or fellowship. It is not first and foremost an artistic expression. It does not depend on our ingenuity or skill. It is fundamentally an act and gift of God because the story of God and people is told and we celebrate the sacrifice and meal that Jesus left us. The Eucharist makes visible the God who dwells among us. At the heart of our faith is the Incarnation, the invisible God made visible. The Eucharist is the sacramental reality of that mystery.  Jesus is preparing the crowd for this, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day." Jn. 6:51-58.
 
The Bread of Life is Divine Wisdom
Bread is a tangible, edible, material reality. You can taste it, smell it, see it and touch it. It is real in the way that all of Creation is real. Life is more than neurons firing in our brains. Life can only be experienced.  In tasting, seeing, touching and smelling we experience life, but they are not life itself. We experience life in joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, hunger and plenty. Our experience of life is heightened when we love and wounded when we don’t love. From the beginning, humans have thought there was more to life than just seeing, touching, smelling and tasting. The Eucharist is the love of God, the wisdom of God, given to us as food for body and soul. Jesus, the God made man, is Divine Wisdom as a human life. When he described himself as the Bread of Life he combined the wisdom of scripture and the holiness that we experience through the saintly with the most common, everyday experience of bread as food.

I have told this story before. The night before my mother died, I was sitting by her bed reading. It was about 3 am and my sisters and nieces present were also asleep. I was reading Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk's book, "No Man is an Island" and he was discussing silence and death. Suddenly, I had this strong memory of an early morning experience when mom took me with her to Eucharistic Adoration. I was a boy and I remembered how calm and peaceful it was. I fell asleep. Mom woke me up and we bought donuts on the way home. My mom was in her death coma and I said to her, "Mom, tonight I am awake and you are asleep." That was a deeply moving moment for me that was tied to the Eucharist, memory and time. I think God sent me that thought. 
 
John’s Gospel said, "No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is at the Father's side, has revealed him." Jn. 1:18. We experience God in our faith in the one whom the Father sent. Faith is not just what we think, it is what we do. It is the invisible made visible.

For this Sunday's readings click here!