Today the Lord Jesus challenges us with the stupendous and incredible assertion that He is the bread that came down from heaven, and that whoever eats this bread will live forever. His listeners understood little of those preposterous words that came out of the mouth of Jesus of Nazareth whom they thought they knew so well. Is he not the son of Joseph the Carpenter? So as he addressed them in these words, they were dumbfounded. Many were even provoked to anger. Some accused him of blasphemy. Others said he was out of his mind. But from a purely human point of view, Jesus understood the disbelief of his hearers. Those who do not believe in the mystery of Christ's body and blood are normal human beings. They are not abnormal people. Those who do not believe in the sacrament of Christ's body and blood are simply following the dictates of human reason. And human reason, no matter how profound, cannot arrive at this most central mystery of the Christian faith. Faith in the Eucharist is a special one.
The saving mystery of Christ's body and blood cannot be deduced from, nor reduced to mere reason. The Eucharist, the giving of Christ's body and blood for the salvation of the world and the sanctification of individual Christians remains essentially a mystery. It is the mystery of the SHEKINAH, the mystery of the inner dwelling of the most high in us. It is the mystery of God's presence in concrete form among his people. So the response of Jesus to his confounded hearers is the same response He has for the men and women of today who have serious doubts about the Eucharist. He told his listeners that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws him. That is to say that faith in Him and in the Eucharist a is matter of grace. The inner light of faith is God's initiative, not a consequence of human effort.
We reflect today on God's profound love, often expressed in strange ways, especially to save his beloved people from fear, from pain and from death. Today's first reading from IKgs 19:4-8 tells of how the Lord provided food in mysterious circumstances for the prophet Elijah when he was fleeing from King Ahab and his terrible wife Jezebel, and found himself in the dry desolate desert where there was neither food nor drink. He was fed-up and asked the Lord to take his life. The Lord promptly provided him with food and drink, and all he needed for the forty day journey through the wilderness to Horeb, the mountain of God.
We recall how in Genesis 21:15-19, when Hagar the slave wife of Abraham was sent away from Abraham's house to go into the wilderness along with her son Ishmael, Hagar's supply of water finished on the way she watched her son dying. In desperation she cried out to God, and the lord heard her cry and sent an angel to provide her with drink. We recall how in the book of Exodus 16:1-15, the Lord provided manna and quail for his hungry people in the desert, on their way to the promised land of Canaan, and how in Numbers 20:1-11 the Lord provided water from the hard rocks of Meribah for his people who cried to him in their desperation. The Lord has constantly intervened in this manner through the course of history to save his people who were in danger of death. The provision of food for sustaining the body, especially in mysterious circumstances such as in a desert during an arduous pilgrimage is seen in Judeo Christian tradition as a powerful expression of God's love and concern for his people.
Today Jesus elevates this concept of food from heaven, to a far more superior level of meaning than the Jews ever knew. He now speaks of his body as the mysterious food and his blood as the mysterious drink. In presenting his body as food, what Jesus was talking about is life, life in abundance, eternal life, life with God in the kingdom of peace. He says in John 6 that he is the bread from heaven, the bread of life, the living bread, which if one eats, he shall live forever. If we refuse the supernatural gift which Christ gives, we deny ourselves of life, and our fate is nothingness, meaninglessness and futility. If we refuse the food that Jesus offers - which is sustenance for the body and nourishment for the soul, our pilgrimage through life becomes a futile exercise. Jesus is indeed food for the journey of life.
As we witness the vicissitudes of life, as we go through the twists and turns of life, as we go through the rocky mountains of evil and the deep valleys of sin in this world, Jesus presents himself as the source of sustenance for the body and nourishment for the soul. As we go through this wild wilderness of loneliness, anxiety, insecurity and pain, we need this food from heaven, which for us Christians is the most concrete assurance of God's providential presence in the midst of his people. We need this food from heaven which constitute the definitive answer to the profound longings of the human heart. So the Eucharist is food for pilgrims on their way to the mountain of God, to the Kingdom of God. Our world is today plagued by fear. Perhaps the most common denominator in today's world, and in our own country is fear and anxiety. We are haunted by the fear of death born of widespread insecurity and instability. Yet in the midst of the dark clouds of fear and anxiety, we find the silver lining of hope and expectation of a better day, and of a new world order.
At the threshold of the 21st century, the entire world longs for a new world order where peace will reign; where swords will be turned into ploughshares and there will no more be violence or war. What politicians call the new world order of peace, is what Pope John Paul II calls the culture of life and the civilization of love founded on Jesus Christ. The Holy Eucharist, the bread from heaven is for us Christians the most powerful guarantee of the emergence of this culture of life and civilization of love. Jesus says "If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." On our own we cannot arrive at the promised land of peace, for our hearts are darkened by sin and our eyes are blinded by corruption. We need the gentle guiding hand of Jesus in our journey through life and towards the Father. For as he says in John 14:6 "I am the Way the Truth and the Life; no one can come to the Father except by me." He also says in John 8:12 "I am the light of the world; no one who follows me will ever walk in darkness." This Jesus is available to us in the Holy Eucharist, the most concrete sacrament of His presence. His Spirit is available to us as Comforter, Counsellor and Sanctifier.
Amidst the many trials in our pilgrimage through life in today's world, Jesus recommends Himself as the real food for our journey. In the face of the multiple crises in the political evolution of our land, Jesus recommends himself as the proper food for our journey. Even as our country men and women go through the harrowing experience of economic depression and social insecurity, Jesus recommends Himself as the authentic food for our journey. Yes, as we go through this vale of tears, and especially as all else seem to fail, Jesus recommends himself as the only efficacious food for our journey. As in the case of Hagar and her son Ishmael when they were driven into the wilderness and they ran short of supplies; and as in the case of Elijah when he was fleeing from the wicked hand of Ahab and his wife Jezebel, the Lord remains the only source of sustenance.
The One who provided manna and quail for the children of Israel while they journeyed through the dry wasteland, and the One who provided water from the hard rocks of Meribah when the thirsty pilgrims cried in desperation; the same One who says in Jesus Christ: "I am the bread come down from heaven...;" "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me...;" "Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened..." (see Jn. 6:51; Jn. 7:37; Rev. 22:17; Mt. 11:28). Jesus remains the only source of true nourishment and comfort for his famished and weary people. He is the Healing Balm for the wounded and broken pilgrims of this world. With the Psalmist we can say in faith, "I lift up my eyes to the mountains; where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth" (Psalm 121:1-2).
Many chronically famished men and women have been groping in the dark and are unable to find the true meaning of their lives. In our day the search for meaning has led quite a number of people into all sorts of pseudo-religions, confraternities, sects and cults, including violent satanic cults. Out of a sense of despair some have been driven to the point of taking their own lives. Some are seeking escape in the plastic wings of pleasure by way of the stupefaction of drug and sex. Others engage in such sundry perversions that leave them with an even greater sense of futility. Jesus the Son of God, the Bread of Life which came down from heaven however remains the only food that truly satisfies. He provides the answers to the deepest longings of the human heart. In the arduous pilgrimage through the undulating terrain of life, we are often hungry and thirsty, tired and weary, weak and faint-hearted. Jesus knows this, and that is why He provides His flesh and blood as food for the journey.
Whereas all other religions set out to find God, the wonder of Christianity is that in Jesus of Nazareth God has set out in search of humanity. The Eucharist - Christ's giving of Himself as food for his people, is the climax of the mysterious dynamic of God searching for or seeking an encounter with human beings. He says in Rev. 3:20 "I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him." In the Word-made-Flesh the Father invites us and offers us the Supreme Gift. Now let us stretch out our hands today and receive the Manna from heaven. Let us open our hearts today and welcome the Word. Let us receive the Eucharist today and enter into the mystery of the Bread of Life. Let us witness today the Real Presence of God in our midst. Let us become part of the eruption of the divine Person into the history of humankind.
