More from the Bread of Life discourse from John 6 in our Gospel reading today. Jesus says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.” More on that in a moment. In the first reading, we see a story about bread from heaven also. In 1 Kings, we read about how an angel came down to Elijah, who was feeling depressed and ready to die. The angel tells him to get up and eat, for he would be going on a journey. When he got up, there was bread waiting for him there.
We have a much different relationship with bread than did the people in biblical times. Nowadays, bread is the enemy for many. Too many carbs! Gotta cut out the bread from your diet! Most bread nowadays is devoid of nutritional value, but that’s a subject for another time. Did you know that back then, as much as 80% of a person’s diet consisted of bread? They didn’t have supermarkets loaded with thousands of types of food. Bread was the stuff of life.
This is why Jesus chose to give us His Body as the Bread of Life. He tells us, “The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” And, sure enough, He kept His promise. And today, thousands of years later, we can still partake of this living bread, every day if we like. We call it the Eucharist. Thank you, Jesus!
Father, you sent your Son, Jesus, to be bread for us. Help us along the way, as we invite everyone to the banquet table to share in the Bread from heaven. Amen.
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