Saint Clare of Assisi
Food for the Journey
The First Reading highlights how the Eucharist is food for our earthly journey. It tells the story of Elijah and his journey to Mt. Horeb. Just as the pharaoh persecuted the Israelites as they journeyed toward the Red Sea and Mt Sinai, Queen Jezebel persecuted Elijah, who fled to the same mountain. Like the Israelites who were fed with miraculous food from heaven during their forty years in the desert, Elijah was fed by miraculous food that sustained him for forty days and forty nights on his way to Mt. Horeb. Both Israel and Elijah were sustained by miraculous bread from heaven. In the Eucharist, Jesus gives us miraculous bread – the Bread of Life and Bread of the Angels – that sustains us on our journey to the eternal promised land. That means that our life is like an exodus journey in the wilderness. It is a time of testing.
Two Sundays ago, we read about the miraculous feeding of the five thousand. Last Sunday, we listened to the crowds ask Jesus for the New Manna that will feed them always. This Sunday we see the Judeans begin to murmur and question Jesus’ origins. Jesus teaches the crowds that just as the manna in the desert was heavenly in origin, so he is heavenly in origin. The manna in the desert came down from heaven, he too comes down from heaven. He is God who has assumed our human nature. Jesus wants the crowds to believe that he is God before he reveals to them the mystery of the Eucharist. Just as the people of Israel struggled to trust in the Lord who brought them out of Egypt with mighty signs and wonders, so the crowds struggle to believe that Jesus, who has performed mighty deeds, has a heavenly origin. To make an act of faith in the divinity of Jesus, we need to be moved and drawn by the grace of God.
Jesus makes a claim only God can make: He is the true bread of heaven that can satisfy the deepest hunger we experience. The manna from heaven prefigured the superabundance of the unique bread of the Eucharist or Lord's Supper which Jesus gave to his disciples on the eve of his sacrifice. The manna in the wilderness sustained the Israelites on their journey to the Promised Land. It could not produce eternal life for the Israelites. The bread which Jesus offers his disciples sustains us not only on our journey to the heavenly paradise, it gives us the abundant supernatural life of God which sustains us for all eternity.
This bread sustains us not only on our journey to eternal life but also gives us the abundant supernatural life of God which sustains us both now in this life and for all eternity. Jesus gave us the bread and drink for eternal life as the Eucharist and when we receive from the Lord's table, we unite ourselves to Jesus Christ, who makes us sharers in his body and blood and partakers of his divine life. Ignatius of Antioch (35-107 A.D.) calls it the "one bread that provides the medicine of immortality, the antidote for death, and the food that makes us live forever in Jesus Christ" (Ad Eph. 20,2). This supernatural food is healing for both body and soul and strength for our journey to eternal life.
Therefore brethren, let our hunger of Jesus Christ, the bread of life, surpass our hunger and thirst for physical food and drinks which we have every day. Without this bread of life, we limp in our spiritual life and there is a high possibility of losing eternal life. We therefore have to do everything possible to attain this bread and pray that the Spirit will make our way towards attaining that bread very clear for us.
Let us reflect today on the reality of the bread that Jesus gives, which is he himself. Every day in mass, he makes himself present in the species of bread and wine, so that us who partake of him should have eternal life and be able to be raised up by him on the last day. Do you always hunger for this bread of life? We pray that our love for Eucharist should increase every day that passes, and may we get nourished and withdraw life and communion as we partake in the bread of life.
Let us Pray.
Lord Jesus, you nourish and sustain us with your very own presence and life-giving word. You are the bread of life - the heavenly food that sustains us now and that produces everlasting life within us. May I always hunger for you and be satisfied in you alone. Amen
Be blessed.
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