Road to Emmaus Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Aug 5, 2009

First Reading – 1 Kgs. 19:4-8

Responsorial Psalm – Ps. 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

Second Reading – Eph. 4:30-5:2

Gospel Reading – Jn. 6:41-51

 

In John 6:1-15 Jesus miraculously fed the five thousand by multiplying a mere five loaves and two fish. The very next day the people that Jesus fed come to seek him out. Jesus, however, realizes their true intentions. They just want to be fed with simple bread once again. They are laboring for the food which perishes. Jesus then tells them that they should be laboring for food which never perishes, enduring to eternal life.

 

Within this context we are brought back to the forty years the Israelites wandered in the wilderness after being released from Egyptian bondage. During this time God provided manna for them daily. However, like the bread Jesus provided the day before, the manna in the desert was bread that perished. Jesus challenges them to believe that God wants to provide for the bread from heaven which does not perish, a bread which “gives life to the world” (John 6:33). Jesus then makes the bold claim, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35).

 

This Sunday’s reading from John’s Gospel picks up with the Jews response to this claim of Jesus: “The Jews murmured at him, because he said, ‘I am the bread which came down from heaven’” (John 6:41). St. Augustine comments, “And because they had taunted him with the manna, he adds, ‘your father did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.’ Your fathers they are, for you are like them; murmuring sons of murmuring fathers.”

 

Jesus then challenges them to believe once again: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life” (John 6:47-48).

 

Jesus then slowly begins to make it more explicit about how they must eat this bread of life. Already by having the provision of manna in the background there is an emphasis on eating. This is precisely what they were supposed to do with the manna. That is why God provided it. So it is to be with the new manna, Jesus, the bread of life. Jesus says, “This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever…” (John 6:50-51b).

 

If matters seem to remain unclear to his hearers he clarifies by saying, in case that not quite sure what kind of bread he is, Jesus says, “the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:51). This is the bread they must eat, his flesh. St. Augustine says, “Our Lord pronounces himself to be bread, not only in respect of that divinity, which feeds all things, but also in respect of that human nature, which was assumed by the Word of God.”

 

In connection with the Eucharist St. Bede the Venerable says, “And observe, the bread which is taken by us in the mysteries [sacraments], is not only the sign of Christ’s flesh, but is itself the very flesh of Christ; for he does not say, ‘The bread which I will give,’ is the sign of my flesh, but, ‘is my flesh.’”

 

The notion of eating is growing more explicit as the narrative moves on. Next Sunday’s Gospel reading will make it even more explicit. But, we must wait until then.

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