Give us this bread

On these Sundays, the Gospels are interrelated; they follow each other. Last week we saw the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish. We are now in chapter 6 of Saint John’s Gospel, where Jesus is going to touch the most difficult topic of his teaching: the Eucharist. It was very hard not only because of the topic itself, but also because of the traditions of the Jews, where they couldn’t eat some types of animals and they had to drain the blood from them. Jesus takes advantage of the miracle to explain this important reality, trusting that after seeing his power, they would listen to him. Precisely, this is a miracle geared to the Eucharist, related to bread and nourishment.

We read on our first reading from the book of Exodus, how God rained down bread from heaven, during the wandering of the Israelites through the desert. They grumbled against God, telling Moses how they had plenty of bread in Egypt, and now they were going to die of starvation. When they woke up in the morning, the ground was covered with something like dew and they asked: What is this?, which in Hebrew is pronounced Manna. We too should ask the same question when we come to Mass and the priest shows us the Eucharist: Who is it? What is the power of this bread?

The Gospel begins with the crowd looking for Jesus. After the miracle Jesus left because they wanted to make him king and he moved to the other side of the lake, to Capernaum. Jesus keeps moving to different sides of the lake, when he wants to get away from the people. We too are looking for Jesus and he keeps moving away from us. The truth is always elusive, difficult to grasp. When the multitude caught up with Jesus, he told them that they were looking not for him, but for the beautiful food they had the day before. We too, many times are looking not for Jesus in himself, but for what he can do for us, for the things that we think can make us happy. We forget that he in himself is the only one who can satisfy us.

The Jews asked Jesus for a sign, the same one Moses gave to their ancestors, the bread from heaven. Jesus told them that his Father was the one who gave them manna. So they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” It is a great petition. We too ask him for bread, but not the same bread the Jews were asking, an earthly bread, but one that lasts for ever, that lifts us up, nourishes and heals us.

Jesus said to them for the first time: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” We don’t need the earthly bread anymore. This bread can never fill us up; we are always hungry, looking for food, thirsty, drinking from potholes even. Jesus is the bread we need, the real bread, the true bread of life, the living water that splashes us into eternal life. Today we make the same petition the Jews asked Jesus: Give us this bread always, help us to come more often to your table, to the Mass, help us to realise that we need you. How rarely we acknowledge the need of the Eucharist, and we fail to come often to receive him which is a pity.

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