Ex 16:2-4,12-15; Ps 78; Eph 4:17,20-24; Jn 6:24-35
COMMENTARY
The Bread of God’s Wisdom
Beginning this Sunday for a full four weeks, the liturgy of the Mass invites us to an ongoing reading and meditation (in four parts!) on the so-called Bread of Life discourse that Jesus proclaimed in John’s Gospel following the multiplication of the loaves. On that occasion, He taught certain aspects of the mystery of the Bread that descended from heaven and is Himself in His “flesh” for the life of the world (cf. Jn 6:51). Today, then, let us enter into the first part of Jesus’ discourse on this sublime mystery of the gift of the Bread of God. It is essential, however, to prepare ourselves adequately to listen, avoiding the temptation of saying that we already know everything, so that we may welcome and experience the full richness of the teaching that Jesus offers us in His holy and profound words.
1. “I Am the Bread of Life.” The Bread of Jesus’ Person
At the end of the first part of the Bread Sermon that we have heard today, Jesus clearly asserts: “I am the bread of life.” A Christian who is already “aware of” the mystery of the Eucharist that Jesus will offer, immediately associates this statement with the Eucharistic Bread, which is Jesus’ Body. Indeed, the “bread of life” that Jesus refers to will attain its full significance in the bread He will consecrate at the Last Supper before His Passion, saying: “This is my body, which will be given for you.” Incidentally, this Eucharistic meaning will also be specified at the end of the bread discourse itself in John’s Gospel (which we are now at the beginning of): “The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (Jn 6:51). Nevertheless, in this first part of the Sermon and within the temporal context of Jesus’s teachings prior to the institution of the Eucharist, His assertion that He is the bread of life appears to indicate a more comprehensive and pertinent aspect, particularly in the present era: He Himself, His whole person, is the bread that gives life. (It is noteworthy that in the discourse, Jesus initially speaks of food in a general sense before introducing the specific image of bread: “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you”).
This interpretation is supported by the clarification that Jesus provides immediately following his self-declaration. In point of fact, he does specify: “(I am the bread of life;) whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” In this way, we glimpse in Jesus’ words the invitation to come to Him and to believe in Him as the action to take up the bread of life. In other words, eating the bread Jesus offers means first of all accepting Him, His person, as the Son and envoy of God. Therefore, Jesus insists on this point several times in the first part of the discourse we are meditating on, specifically: “The bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world,” and, answering the question what must be done to do the works of God (for eternal life), Jesus declares: “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” In essence, the bread for eternal life is all about Him, Jesus, on whom “the Father, God, has set his seal” and to eat Him is to take on His person in the heart, through faith, with all His teachings and all His saving and sanctifying deeds.
2. The Bread of God’s Wisdom
It is precisely from this “non-sacramental” or “pre-sacramental” perspective that we gain a deeper understanding of Jesus’ self-declaration as the “bread of life,” that is, the bread that gives divine and eternal life. When Jesus spoke to the Jews in Capernaum, even before the institution of the Eucharist in Jerusalem, during His Passion, when He solemnly declared that He was such “bread” for the world, His listeners, in trying to understand it, would have referred to a similar discourse in the biblical-Jewish tradition on the mysterious figure of the Wisdom of God. In fact, in one of Her famous discourses in the Book of Proverbs, She announced a memorable invitation to eat Her bread and drink Her wine. This Old Testament passage is so fundamental to the understanding of Jesus’ words that it is worth quoting it in full, as follows:
Wisdom has built her house,
she has set up her seven columns;
She has prepared her meat, mixed her wine,
yes, she has spread her table.
She has sent out her maidservants; she calls
from the heights out over the city:
“Let whoever is naive turn in here;
to any who lack sense I say,
Come, eat of my food,
and drink of the wine I have mixed!
Forsake foolishness that you may live;advance in the way of understanding.” (Pr 9:1-6)
Here is the urgent invitation of divine Wisdom, calling all to the banquet She has prepared, to eat Her bread and wine in order to live, which, as the context makes clear, means to follow Her way of wisdom and intelligence. Such an invitation now resounds from the lips of Jesus, and the Jewish listeners could recognize in Him precisely the voice of the mystical Wisdom of God. Thus, on the one hand, Jesus reveals Himself to them as the divine Wisdom incarnate, that is, in the flesh, and, on the other hand, His invitation to eat the “bread of life,” which is Himself, refers first of all to the act of adhering to His way of wisdom, to His teachings, for divine life. It is not by chance that He will also declare that He is the way, the truth and the life (cf. Jn 14:6).
In this way, the bread that Jesus offers points first to His words. Those who accept them pass from death to life, as He points out: “Whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life” (Jn 5:24). So much so that, as we will see in a few weeks, while many of the other disciples abandoned Jesus because of his “harsh” words after the discourse on the bread, the apostle Peter confessed his faith and that of all the early believers: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68). The bread of life is His words, which will remain forever as a gift for the salvation of the world, while heaven and earth will pass away, as He said at another time (cf. Mt 24:35).
3. The Immense Gift of the Table of Christ-God’s Word for the Life of the World
For His disciples-missionaries, yesterday as today, the call of Jesus to take the bread that is His word for life is still urgent for their spiritual life and, consequently, for their mission of evangelization in today’s world. It is about the immense gift of the table of the Word of God revealed in Christ, the Word-Wisdom of God incarnate and sent into the world. His words must be increasingly appreciated and accepted as necessary nourishment for the journey of every believer. For the life of the disciples, the bread of the Word remains the fundamental food, on a par with the Eucharistic bread of the Body and Blood of Christ. Therefore, by exhorting his own to abide in Him as branches in the vine, Christ asks that His words abide in them so that they may bear fruit and become His true disciples (cf. Jn 15:7). Moreover, by sending them into the world after His resurrection with the specific missionary mandate, He commanded them to teach all nations “to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:20), that is, to faithfully transmit and keep all his words that lead to life in communion with God.
Let us pray, then, that the Lord may awaken in us the desire for constant communion with His Word, that we may satisfy the hunger for truth that He has placed in our hearts, and that we may share it with all our brothers and sisters who need it on the path to eternal life. Amen.
Useful points to consider:
VAT. CONC. II, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, 18 November 1965
SACRED SCRIPTURE IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH
21. The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures just as she venerates the body of the Lord, since, especially in the sacred liturgy, she unceasingly receives and offers to the faithful the bread of life from the table both of God’s word and of Christ’s body. She has always maintained them, and continues to do so, together with sacred tradition, as the supreme rule of faith, since, as inspired by God and committed once and for all to writing, they impart the word of God Himself without change, and make the voice of the Holy Spirit resound in the words of the prophets and Apostles. Therefore, like the Christian religion itself, all the preaching of the Church must be nourished and regulated by Sacred Scripture. For in the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven meets His children with great love and speaks with them; and the force and power in the word of God is so great that it stands as the support and energy of the Church, the strength of faith for her sons, the food of the soul, the pure and everlasting source of spiritual life. Consequently these
words are perfectly applicable to Sacred Scripture: “For the word of God is living and active” (Heb. 4:12) and “it has power to build you up and give you your heritage among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32; see 1 Thess. 2:13).
Catechism of the Catholic Church
103 For this reason, the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord’s Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God’s Word and Christ’s Body. (Cf. DV 21)