23-Apr-15

Gospel JN 6:44-51
Jesus said to the crowds:
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day.
It is written in the prophets: "They shall all be taught by God."
Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven
so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my Flesh for the life of the world.”
Reflection:
"It is written in the prophets:
They shall all be taught by God."
Jesus was a student of scripture, and the scripture he read was what we commonly refer to as the Old Testament.
In today's gospel, he is telling the crowds what was said by the Prophet Isaiah: "All your children will be taught by the LORD, and great will be their peace." (Isaiah 5:13)
The Prophets did not speak their own words. They conveyed to the people only what had been told to them by God.
Here Jesus is telling the people that these are not his own words but the words of the Father, as given to Isaiah.
For the people of Israel the message is strange and difficult to comprehend. This Jesus, the miracle worker, tells them that God had sent their ancestors manna, bread from Heaven, to sustain their physical life.
He goes on to tell them that God is now sending them "living bread" and whoever eats his flesh will live forever.
To many of the Jews of Jesus' time, this was a very strange concept and almost impossible to understand. They must have asked themselves how this man could even suggest that people should eat his flesh.
Today, even devout Catholics can at times find themselves struggling to understand how bread can be transformed into the body of Christ.
There is no shame in our struggle to believe. Faith is not a matter of proof but a matter of belief and acceptance of things which cannot be proven.
But, when people can believe in and accept the "Bread of Life," then the promise of Isaiah, the Prophet of Old, comes to pass and truly, "great will be their peace."
"Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9:23-24