The Power of the Bread of Life
This morning we confront once again readings from the so-called “Bread of Life narrative.” The Bread of Life narrative takes up five chapters in the Gospel of John, and contains the central Biblical proofs for the Catholic belief that our celebration of the Eucharist is the celebration of Jesus entering our bodies as the Real Presence of God, body, blood, soul, and divinity; Jesus, literally in us.
By now, you might just be stifling a yawn. For you have heard Father Rick, myself, and other clergy talk about the Eucharist and the Bread of Life many times. Indeed, any concept, no matter how meaningful and relevant to our physical and spiritual lives can seem a little dry or abstract unless you see it in action in real life.
In our readings tonight, the Eucharist is in action for three different people or sets of people. In our reading from the first Book of Kings, the prophet Elijah has been preaching and teaching the Jewish people. Like every preacher, the people weren’t always hanging on his every word.
Elijah traveled from town to town and he was tired. He wasn’t driving his car to these places but hoofing it. Between the challenge of the journey, and the challenge of the audience, he was worn out and ready to give up. But God sustains him by an angel giving him food and drink. The food and drink God provides is a foreshadowing of the food and drink Jesus Himself would provide at a later point in salvation history. Elijah is fortified and is ready to resume his work on behalf of God.
In our second reading, Paul remarks how the Eucharist, for him and all of Jesus’ followers, not only feeds us spiritually but also redeems us. The Eucharist unleashes the power of the Holy Spirit, helping us to turn away from anger, malice, and violence and toward compassion, forgiveness, and even Christ-like sacrifice.
Finally, in the Bread of Life Gospel reading from John we read from tonight (this morning) Jesus reminds us that if the apostles eat his flesh, they will not die. It is a formulation which must have seemed rather strange to them, for theologians tell us the words “eat his flesh” here should be interpreted more as something like gnawing on his flesh, as someone who is very hungry might do when presented with a turkey drumstick. But the apostles would come to understand this concept only later, after Jesus instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday. The Eucharist would turn the key for them, as it does for us, to the door of salvation. These rather ordinary people would, because of the power of the Eucharist, become extraordinary agents of God’s mercy and compassion.
But this is only really the beginning of the story. For we are ordinary people much like the apostles. And much like the apostles, we are given the extraordinary privilege of being offered the Eucharist. And we, much like the apostles, can also become extraordinary agents of God’s mercy and compassion.
We can talk a lot about the Eucharist. We can honor it, as we should. We go to rather significant lengths to protect the species of the Eucharist, preserving it in tabernacles, adoring it through exposition and benediction.
But, brothers and sisters, to really understand the power of the Bread of Life, the Eucharist, we must go deeper. For if we believe that Christ is literally in us, through the Eucharist, then we must, as Father Rick noted last week, literally put on Christ. We are called to be transformed by it, not merely accept it.
Here I have a confession to make. Despite many years as a cradle Catholic, and many years as a deacon, this notion of the Eucharist as transforming us was only superficially clear to me. For we can believe that Jesus is in the Eucharist. We can believe in the Real Presence. But we may not always see what the Real Presence in us through the Eucharist can do for those who receive it. And so let me share a personal experience that I went through these past few weeks. This experience was an awesome gift from the Lord, played out in a most ordinary way, but with extraordinary impact.
We have many wonderful parishioners here at St. Hubert. And I normally don’t call out them out from the pulpit but I am going to make an exception this morning. Many of you in this parish know Joanie Smith. She is a long-time member of this parish, who has offered her services to us in many ways over the years. She is a loving, giving, but modest person who frankly we can take for granted.
Many months ago, Joanie agreed to take care of a neighbor named Thor, an old man who had had a severe stroke. Joanie is a nurse, and was very dissatisfied with Thor’s care in a nursing home. So remarkably, she brought him to his old house, moved in with him, and took care of him. Many of you have seen Thor at church, brought to our parish by Joanie every Sunday until very recently.
Joanie has done this without any hope of compensation. Thor’s finances are a little complicated, and Joanie has asked for nothing for herself. Thor is not her father, or even her relative. He was a neighbor, but Thor had lots of neighbors. These last several weeks, it has become clear that Thor was near the end of his life. Joanie has been waiting on him hand and foot, waking every two hours to give him his medicine. I must confess somewhat shamefully that I had not given him or her much thought until Marcia Halligan, our parish administrator, asked me to look in on her.
Like old Elijah in our first reading, people who try to serve God have good days and bad. They can get very tired because of the sheer fatigue serving others can bring. This was true of Joanie. When I visited her she was very tired, on the verge of tears at times. But I brought something with me that sustained and transformed her as it has so many people over almost 2,000 years. It was the Eucharist.
Perhaps, brothers and sisters, I have been a little dense. But in a way that I had never appreciated before, the Bread of Life, the Eucharist, is not just a concept. Oh, we should believe the concept. But we should really believe the wonderful things it does. Watching Joanie put on Christ through the Eucharist was an exceptional revelation, a remarkable gift of God’s grace. And I praise God and thank Joanie for sharing her service-based love for Thor, with me.
Thor passed away a few days ago. But the Bread of Life endures for those in this life and the next. And so let us pray brothers and sisters, the next time we hear the term Bread of Life, we not only acknowledge the concept but also recognize its power. Let us not just read about the Bread of Life, talk about the Bread of Life, and believe in the Bread of Life, let us act on it in our own lives and the lives of others.