EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - B

EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – B (Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15; Eph 4:17, 20-24; John 6:24-35) Theme: “Lord, give us our daily bread and make us a daily bread for others” – our prayer Reflection: True bread is from above - John’s Gospel instead of Mark’s: we are in the eighteenth Sunday of the Liturgical Year B. Generally we have the readings from the gospel of St. Mark for this year. But strangely we see last Sunday and today, the reading is not from Mark’s gospel but from John’s gospel. The motivation is simple. John elaborates and gives the completion to the miracle of multiplication of the loaves and fish. Mark narrates it well but with the meaning of the messianic wonder. John prolongs it giving the theological meaning of Jesus becoming the “true and living bread” for the salvation of all. Therefore, the Church recommends us to have a glance of the narration of John so that we enter profoundly into its significance and make it our own. - Last Sunday – bread multiplied with the loving sharing: Last Sunday we have meditated upon the miracle of the multiplication of five loaves of bread and two fish. The content of it is: God brings into fulfillment the action initiated in faith and trust. The heroes of the miracles are Elisha in the first reading and Jesus in the second reading. Both of them did not have any doubt and worry of the small portion of bread they have or any fear whether it would be sufficient for all or not. They offered the miracle to God. They put all their trust and faith in God. They believed that they only start the action but it is God who actualizes it. God has seen their perfect praise and thanksgiving which is the expression of their faith. As a result the impossible has become possible and the small portion of bread has become sufficient and abundant. This is the content of the miracle we have seen last Sunday. The story is not complete there. The content needs to be comprehended and continued. Reflecting the miracle and glorifying God for it is not enough. It is only the one side of the coin. There is second side: the continuity. The continuity of the miracle is: We have to become the miracle worker and thus multiply our deeds of love. Each authentic believer has the Christian capacity to perform such a miracle of multiplication of love: our love has to be sufficient and abundant for all who come into our life. This is the vocation of those who participate in the miracle of Eucharist. - Today’s gospel – true bread is not from the earth but from heaven: today’s readings lead us one step ahead. They invite us to distinguish between the bread that perishes and the bread that lasts long. Jesus clearly tells the crowds not to worry about the bread that they have been filled with but work hard, with faith and charity, to accumulate the bread which gives them not momentary and temporary satisfaction but ever and eternal salvation. The bread produced and prepared in the oven of the earth, by the hands of man, is important for the material and physical nutrition. It gives strength and growth. But it has its end only in the earth. Instead, there is special and delicious bread, produced and prepared in the oven of the heaven, by the very hands of God. It is sent by God himself from above. This bread is ever lasting. It gives spiritual growth. It keeps the human spirit always attached to the Divine Spirit. This bread has no end. It remains forever. It makes the consumers to grow not only horizontally but also vertically. It makes them to reach the one who prepared it. We need to strive to earn such kind of bread so that we attain the salvation it provides. Let us observe well the readings to understand this significance. Jesus Christ: The Living Bread coming down from heaven - The readings of today invite us to consider and to conquest not only the earthly bread but also heavenly bread. They unveil the mystery of Jesus Christ as the “bread sent by the Father” to feed the redemptive hunger and thirst of the world. Jesus is the New Manna coming from heaven and he confirms it in his own words: “I am the bread of life. whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35). - “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you” (Ex 16:4 – first reading): God promises to send a food from heaven after listening to the grumbling of the Israelites against him and his servant Moses. God has initiated an event of delivering his people from the slavery and to lead them to the land full of prosperity. Without much comprehension and without much preparation to face trials, they has set out in their journey. They cried out for the redemption from the Egyptian dominion. They must have thought that God guides them into the safe land without any difficult. In fact, God promised the fertile land for them in future but he never promised that they would reach it without any trials and difficulties. Nothing comes so easily. God demanded their complete trust in his action. But soon they have forgotten the demand and remembered only his promise. When they are attacked by the hunger and thirst they doubted and feared that God has forgotten his promised. They doubted his faithfulness and his promise. - God, seeing their depression and distrust, manifests his mercy and love by providing them what they need: he wills and decides to satisfy their hunger. He makes them promise of sending them food for them and he immediately fulfills it by sending Man-hu, manna, which means “what is this?” Therefore, manna, in the Old Testament, has become the sign for testing God on the part of Israel (because they have tested God), and it has become the sign of the word coming down on the part of God (because God will make his Word a new manna for his people). - The meaning of manna: “what is it?” needs more reflection: The Israelites are aware of the usual bread they eat. Now they find something different and some element unusual before them and in front of their eyes. Out of curiosity and out of wonder they ask themselves what this strange substance could be. This reveals the truth that what God sends is not an usual food but a special and extra-ordinary. Though it is not ordinary it can be consumed. For his people he has sent a food from above and thus satisfied their hunger and thirst. This is the pre-figuration of something more and definitive that God is going to do for his people: he is going to rain bread from heaven. Indeed, he rains in the appointed time: he sends his Word made Manna for his people. Jesus himself takes this event of manna in the desert and the words of Moses and gives them their completion and perfection. He demonstrates himself to be the “New and True Manna” which would satisfy the hunger forever, hunger for salvation and thus, leads those who eat it into heaven, the place of eternal life. - “I am the bread of Life” (John 6:35 – Gospel): Jesus, basing himself on the miracle of multiplication of loaves, produces a discourse of himself as the True and Eternal Bread. He knows well why the great crowds are following him and he admonishes them to work for the bread that will not fade away. He opens this discourse in the synagogue of Capernaum with the vigorous comparison: he opposes the “food that perishes” (the bread) with “the food that lasts for the everlasting life” (Word and Eucharist). He already highlights this difference in his first temptation on the mountain with the beautiful words: “man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Math 4:4), the inspiration he takes from the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 8:2-3). And it is for this reason God sends not an usual food but completely different food in the form of manna. And it is for this reason what Jesus provides not an usual bread but “his own flesh” (John 6:51: ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh’). The antithesis of “perishing food” and “long lasting food” is also found in his earlier dialogue with the Samaritan woman. There he speaks with her about the thirst and water and makes the complete contrast between “the water which quenches the thirst” and “the spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (John 4:14). In this way, Jesus takes what is already prophesied and promised in the Old Testament and gives it completion in his own person. He manifests his superiority over Moses and thus not only provides bread for his people but above all, he himself becomes the bread for them. His true identity as the Word and Son of God is revealed: He is the True Bread coming from Heaven and He is the Fountain of Divine Life for whole world. This miracle happens in the Eucharist: the body and blood of Jesus provided by God for the salvation of the entire humanity. An Invitation to provide and to become the bread: “We are the manna” for the world - Eucharist – The Bread of Life Offered For All: The last thing that Jesus accomplishes in his life is “giving to the world his life”. In other words, he offers himself as the bread of life for the world. The unique and the only effect of the whole mystery of paschal event – His Passion, Death and Resurrection – is this: He gives up his Body and He pours out his Blood for the nourishment of the humanity. The institution of the Eucharist finds its ultimate significance only here. By dying and rising from the dead, he prepares a New Manna and Spring of Water, which satisfy the hunger and quenches the thirst of all those who come to him. And he calls all of them to taste the “living bread” he has given for the world. Eucharist, thus, is not destined only for some but for all. It is prepared and established in the presence of the few but it is ever extended to all. All have an access to it. All can participate in it. All have the possibility to consume it and thus, attaining the salvation it provides. Therefore, Eucharist is the “bread of life” offered for all. - Eucharist – an invitation to become ourselves “manna” for others: now as the active participants and authentic receivers of the Eucharist, we, the Christians have something more to do and something else to become: we have to provide the manna and above all, we have to become ourselves manna. We have to reach such a stage in which we can affirm that “we are the manna” for the salvation of all. We have to attain such Christian perfection in which we can confirm that “we are the food” provided by Jesus for the hunger and thirst of our community and for the people around. The body and blood of Jesus we receive in the communion transforms us to be the bread of life for others. Only that we have to allow ourselves to become such a manna with faith and with prayer. The gospel indicates such a kind of attitude: faith in him leads to the eternal satisfaction (John 6:35). - From refusal to the consummation of the bread: We are the witness for the bread we eat and the effect that produces. Our life has to be the manifestation of the Eucharist. Eucharist is not only a “participation” but also a “becoming”. For all those who do not have an access to this bread and for all those who do not eat this food, we need to be the guide and if required we need to become ourselves the bread. We have to lead them to the bread and fountain of life. For this we need to be the authentic people who prepare bread for all. Not just by our word, but by our very life, we have to invite all to consume the bread that Jesus has placed before the world: Eucharist. Eucharist is the “gratuitous food” that God provides for all. And we are that food and we are that manna and finally, we are that Eucharist. We are encouraged further by the words of St. Paul in the second reading: we have to be renewed in the mind and in the spirit and we have to cloth ourselves with the new self of Christ (Eph 4:23-23). This new self is to become like Christ. In a more specific manner, to put on new self means to be Eucharist for the world: to become sacrificial bread for our community. Only in this way, we realize our vocation of becoming the bread from heaven and the bread for all. Our faith and prayer, thus, should be this: “Lord, give us our daily bread and make us a daily bread for others”.