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09 Aug 2009 - Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

I am the bread of life. Continuing Jesus’ words on the Bread of Life from two Sundays ago, the gospel today tells how the Son, the one who “comes down from heaven,” both gives life and is life himself. Manna was also food that came from God, but it remained food. Jesus himself becomes what he offers: eternal life. He is nourishment that sustains those who believe in him on the journey from death and despair, as Ezekiel felt, to new life. This journey is also one of discipleship. In the Eucharist we encounter this Living Bread, both offering and the One who offers, which sustains us to the end. Homily points Our sensory reality is more compelling to us than abstract ideas. The angels of scripture provide a bridge between the idea of salvation and its visible experience. Jesus fills the immediacy gap between the memory of God’s salvation and the present moment of this generation. Our Eucharist is the perceivable experience of Christ’s life here and now. All we have to do is incorporate it.

manna bread of live living bread

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In other words

12 Aug 2018 - Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

At this, because he said, “I am the Bread that came down from heaven,” the Jews started arguing over him: “Isn’t this the son of Joseph? Don’t we know his father? Don’t we know his mother? How can he now say, ‘I came down out of heaven’ and expect anyone to believe him?” Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent me is in charge. He draws people to me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do my work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End. This is what the prophets meant when they wrote, ‘And then they will all be personally taught by God.’ Anyone who has spent any time at all listening to the Father, really listening and therefore learning, comes to me to be taught personally—to see it with his own eyes, hear it with his own ears, from me, since I have it firsthand from the Father. No one has seen the Father except the One who has his Being alongside the Father—and you can see me. “I’m telling you the most solemn and sober truth now: Whoever believes in me has real life, eternal life. I am the Bread of Life. Your ancestors ate the manna bread in the desert and died. But now here is Bread that truly comes down out of heaven. Anyone eating this Bread will not die, ever. I am the Bread—living Bread!—who came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live—and forever! The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self” (from John 6). From A New Message 4 Next Week (actapublications.com) based on The Message: Catholic/Ecumenical Edition by Eugene Peterson (ACTA Publications, 2013).

bread from heaven living bread

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Quotes

19 Aug 2018 - Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

The most holy Eucharist holds within itself the whole spiritual treasure of the church, namely Christ himself, our passover and our living bread. —Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) We speak of the real presence of Christ in us . . . . he is in us, through his flesh, and we are in him; and with him, what we are is in God. —Saint Hilary of Poitiers (c. 315-367) Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrow, but we can choose to live in joy. —Mythologist Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) Those who eat and drink the Lord’s flesh and blood live in the Lord and the Lord lives in them. A marvelous and inexplicable union occurs by which God is in us, and we are in God. Does this not fill you with awe as you listen? —Saint Theophylact (c. 1050-1109)

living bread real presence

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Homily stories

19 Aug 2018 - Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

The people in today’s gospel who just “don’t get it” when Jesus tells them his flesh is the living bread from heaven remind me of a time we scared the daylights out of my younger daughter. She was just about 3 years old when she and her older sister were having trouble getting to sleep. They were in the same room and kept giggling and laughing long past their bedtime. My wife and I were tired at the end of the day and getting exasperated. One of them whispered something and once again the giggling erupted uncontrollably. In desperation, I yelled out, “It looks like we’re going to have to separate you two.” At that, the younger daughter started wailing in terror. We went in to console her, but she cried all the more saying, “Don’t separate me, don’t separate me!” Earlier that day she’d been watching her mother separate a whole chicken into pieces for the barbecue grill and the image obviously stayed with her. She thought that’s what we were threatening to do to her and her sister. We sat with her and soothed her. We reassured her Mommy and Daddy might get mad but we’d never do anything like that to hurt her. Comforted, the two girls drifted off to sleep, and we learned a lesson about the trouble with taking things literally.

Authors Tom McGrath

living bread

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Homily stories

04 Aug 2024 - Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

My daughter Hannah is committed to her eating routines. She has three squares a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And there is no skipping a meal. Even if she gets up late, her first meal is still breakfast—don’t even think of calling it anything else, or she will instantly correct you. It may look like lunch to the rest of us, but it is still breakfast to her, and two more light meals will follow before the day’s end. She spends a fair amount of time thinking about her next meal, planning it out down to the one piece of chocolate she will have for dessert. But despite her obsession with food—typical of people with Down syndrome—she does not overeat. She is the perfect weight for her height and very disciplined about what she consumes. The one thing she doesn’t eat is wheat because she has celiac disease. Thus, no bread, cake, or pizza. Unlike the Israelites in the desert, she never once complained when she learned at a young age that she couldn’t eat the cake at a friend’s birthday party or the cookies someone baked for the class. Her grumble-free reaction to her new life without wheat was unexpected and admirable. She only makes one exception to her wheatless regime: Holy Communion. I guess she figures certain things are worth the risk.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

Bread bread of life living bread

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