Scripture reflection on the Sunday Readings, Aug. 13, 2006

Scripture: I Kings 19:4-8; Psalm 34;Ephesians 4:30-5:2; John 6:41-52.

Jesus teaches us in one of his great " I AM" statements that He is the Bread of Life. He also implies that we are taught by God and that by listening to God we will know who Jesus is as the Bread of Life and that we will thereby be one with Him in the Kingdom of God, that is, we will enjoy eternal life. Jesus is our bread and nourishment each day; He is food for our daily journey. The readings help us to see the theme of Jesus as Bread of Life. In Elijah we see a prophet who is tired, wearied, harassed and who even tells God to take him from this life. He has a type of death wish. But God is a giver of life and an angel is sent who touches him and feeds him with a hearth cake and water. He is told to get up and go on his journey to the holy mountain where God's covenant was revealed to Moses, that is to Mount Sinai or Horeb as we have it here in the Elohist tradition and the Deuteronomist tradition.

Jesus makes the teaching clear when He says, "whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I give is my flesh for the life of the world!" (John 6:51). The instruction about this will be even more physical and graphic as we read in the ensuing verses of John 6:52-59. During the past few weeks I have come across readings from the early Christian writers that assure you that Jesus really means what he says in these strong Eucharistic texts of John. The Eucharistic presence is real for them not symbolic. I ask myself why do some who are normally literalists in interpreting the Bible, shy away in practice from belief in the reality of Jesus presence in the Eucharist?

Today all of the readings emphasize the nourishment that the Lord gives to us even in Himself (Psalm 34). We are to taste and see how good is the Lord; all of our senses are involved in the praying of this Psalm 34. What about the Epistle to the Ephesians which does not have the same clarity on the bread of life theme? I see in it a way of showing us that the Bread of Life which is Jesus is not simply a Jesus and I relationship but one that extends to the Body of Christ, my brothers and sisters. It is an ecclesial revelation that Paul is giving us and it is through Christian communities of faith that we are to be nourishment for one another through compassion, forgiveness, and the forgetting of oneself in order to serve and nourish others. This is how we come to taste and see the goodness of the Lord. Amen.