This Bread Is My Flesh

 John 6: 41-51

.The Bread of Life

⁴¹ At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴² They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

⁴³ “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. ⁴⁴ “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. ⁴⁶ No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. ⁵⁰ But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

If we have ever fasted from all food for a day, we know how hungry we become, and if beyond a day, how weak we feel...We need food.  Jesus knew this and planned a simply solution for our spiritual hunger:  his own body and blood as THE nourishment of the soul.  And how would we be able to eat his body?  Under the appearances of common bread and wine, as simple as that. If God could create the universe, could he not make Jesus accessible to us in this familiar food and drink?  The Eucharist, Holy Communion, not just a symbol, but the "real thing"!  What a great gift! May we not starve ourselves, but receive it weekly, if not daily.  Jesus hungers for intimate union with us even more than we long for him. Why deny him, why deny ourselves?

Bro. Rene