This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.
The miraculous provision of quail and manna to the Israelites in the first reading is so real, so tangible.
When Jesus talks about Himself as the Bread of Life in the gospel, it may seem all very metaphorical, mystical, even ephemeral and unsubstantial by comparison.
But the people who heard Him were getting an inkling of his meaning as they said: “Sir, give us this bread always.”
To illustrate the critical nature of the Bread that Jesus gives, imagine that you could receive guaranteed physical sustenance for the rest of your life, without having to pay a dime. The only condition is that you remain bound to a bed in restraints, and receive the nourishment through a feeding tube. Would you do it?
Perhaps this image helps us understand what is meant by today’s Alleluia verse: “One does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”
Living in a bed with restraints would be a very limited human life. We are meant to get out in the world and interact, achieve, experience, make a difference. The notion that the nutrition from the feeding tube alone could make us happy is laughable.
But what is it that makes a complete life more fulfilling than a life in restraints? Is it the experience of the senses? Greater experience with the senses hardly justifies the sum of human striving.
Only meaning, a greater good, a wider context, makes a life, with all its experiences and strivings, truly complete and truly human.
And it is precisely this breadth, depth, and length of life horizon that Jesus, the Bread of Life, provides for us. How much more valuable this is than the nutritive concoction that flows through a feeding tube. The sustenance Jesus provides is literally the stuff of human life.
Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to help you transcend the mindset that material processes constitute the bulk of reality. Ask Him to help you live with the same consciousness of the richness of the human spirit that He had, and to seek the bread that He gives always.
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