Lord's Day Reflection: 'The Bread for the Life of the World'

By Fr. Edmund Power, OSB

In the high summer of the northern hemisphere in the year of Mark, we take a five-Sunday detour, leaving the briefest of the evangelists and proclaiming instead chapter 6 of the Gospel of John.

In essence, this chapter is a long reflection on the meaning of the Eucharist. Today is the third of the five Sundays, and for the first time in this discourse, the note of scepticism, belittlement, and hostility enters.

Jesus may be used to such treatment from the Jews, as John labels the opposition, but within two Sundays we will hear that even many of his disciples will refuse to believe in his message.

The patience, determination, and courage of Jesus stand as a constant example for us in the moments when we might be tempted to lose heart.

For the first time today, he makes explicit the bold identification of the bread with his flesh: the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.

Listening carefully to today’s gospel, we may note a recurring feature of the style of John, the repetition of key words that has the effect of emphasising certain concepts.

There are at least three important Johannine themes today. First, there is the divine origin of Jesus: came down from heaven or who is from God occur in different forms six times. Second, there is the Father, the origin of all that Jesus does (four times). Finally, there is bread (six times) linked with a life that is both present and eternal.

In this chapter, starting with the concrete sign of the multiplication of the loaves, Jesus gradually reveals a deeper dimension of all that is happening.

But such a dimension is inaccessible to those who do not feel in their hearts the need or the desire for a divine quality of life.

We have in today’s gospel a phrase of great significance for St. Augustine: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.  

This is that touch of the heart that enkindles the desire, the “prevenient” grace that comes before the heart-opening to a newness of life.

Let us pray this Sunday that the Father will draw us to Jesus. Let us receive the bread of life, his flesh, both as life now, and as “waybread” for the journey to the vision of God on the eternal Horeb (first reading). And on that journey, let us always walk in love (second reading).