John 6:44-51

Acts 8:26-40

Psalm 66:8-9, 16-17, 20

John 6:44-51

Jesus said to the crowds:

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,

and I will raise him on the last day.

It is written in the prophets:

They shall all be taught by God.

Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.

Not that anyone has seen the Father

except the one who is from God;

he has seen the Father.

Amen, amen, I say to you,

whoever believes has eternal life.

I am the bread of life.

Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;

this is the bread that comes down from heaven

so that one may eat it and not die.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven;

whoever eats this bread will live forever;

and the bread that I will give

is my Flesh for the life of the world.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, you will that your Word spread to the ends of the earth and reach all nations. There are so many today who are unfamiliar with you and your Word. I pray for those who do not know you, and I promise to do what I can to spread the Gospel message to those around me.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Taught by God: In the ancient world, in the time of Jesus, a person would ask a rabbi to become their disciple (talmid). And, if a rabbi approved of a student, they would accept them as a disciple. Now, it was the custom of every Rabbi to have five disciples (see Luke 5:27). Jesus, though, points out that he is doing something new and different. He points out that the Father is working to bring people to him. As Jesus says at the Last Supper: “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you” (John 15:16). As well, “When Jesus went from five disciples to 12 (see Luke 9:1-6), the newness of his mission became evident: he was not one of the numbers rabbis but had come to gather together the eschatological Israel, symbolized by the number 12, the number of the tribes of Israel” (Benedict XVI, Wednesday Audience, May 17, 2006). In his teaching, Jesus is responding to the challenge and grumbling of his listeners. They think that because they know Jesus’ father and mother from Nazareth, Jesus cannot claim to have come down from heaven. Jesus responds by quoting Isaiah 54:13: “They shall all be taught by God.” What the prophet Isaiah envisioned is coming to fulfillment in Jesus: “Isaiah envisions the messianic age as a time when Yahweh will restore, prosper, and teach the children of Israel” (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: Old and New Testament, 1901).

2. Faith and Life: Throughout the first part of his Bread of Life Discourse, Jesus has been emphasizing the essential role of faith. And this culminates in an “Amen, amen” teaching: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.” If the discourse stopped here, we would have reason to think that when Jesus declared, “I am the Bread of Life,” he was only using a metaphor. Believing in Jesus and welcoming him into our lives is similar to eating bread. But Jesus doesn’t stop his discourse there. No, he moves to a deeper teaching: “The bread that I will give is my flesh!” Belief in Jesus, then, is not only connected to the Sacrament of Baptism (see John 3:1-21) but is also connected to the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

3. The Living Bread and Manna of the Messiah: Jesus’ teaching about the Eucharist has deep roots in the history of Israel and their experience in the desert. Jesus chose to surround his teaching about the mystery of his presence in the Eucharist with references to the manna from heaven. He could have chosen the Passover Lamb to explain the Eucharist or the Bread of the Presence in the Temple. “But when he wanted to emphasize the necessity of eating his flesh and drinking his blood and the fact that it would somehow become ‘real food’ and ‘real drink,’ he didn’t choose either of these. He used the Jewish hope for new bread from heaven, and identified the Eucharist with the manna of the Messiah” (Pitre, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist, 102). Jesus invites us to ponder the comparison: “if the old manna of the first exodus was supernatural bread from heaven, then the new manna of the Messiah must also be supernatural bread from heaven” (Pitre, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist, 103).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, the Father has drawn me to you. I have found you, and I love you. I humbly ask that you raise me up on the last day to be with you and the Father. You are everything to me.

Living the Word of God: Here on earth, we encounter Jesus in the Word of God and in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, the Bread of Life. The Word and the Eucharist nourish us, purify us, and strengthen us on our journey to heaven. How am I partaking of the Word of God and the Bread of Life each day?