'Whoever Feeds on This Bread will live Forever'
Reflecting on the Gospel of John Chapter 6 these past weeks, while attending to my ageing mother and its impact on my siblings and me, have challenged me to come to grips with some of Jesus’ deep mystical teachings. I have been using Fr. Michel de Verteuil’s book ‘Eucharist as Word’ to help me. It has not been easy.
As one of my avid readers, Andre, has pointed out to me - it is so easy to take Jesus’ teachings at a superficial level, but do we really believe, and do we let it transform us over the years. For most times we live superficially, attending to daily tasks, rushing from this to that in a whirlwind of activity. In John Chapter 6 Jesus is inviting us into a whole new way of life - a Life in the Spirit.
A life lived in accepting Jesus into our very selves, and losing ourselves in Jesus - becoming Christ, as we have reflected on in earlier posts this week. And Jesus is promising if we accept this new life - we begin to live eternal lives.
These reflections have brought me to a place of deep contemplation, where the words of John 6 is a call to transformation that resonates with my current journey. How do we live lives of eternal truths such as love, charity, peace, joy, patience, appreciation and gratitude while attending to the daily issues of the dollars and cents of living - the manna in the desert versus the living bread.
It’s not about abandoning our responsibilities, but about allowing the living bread, the presence of Christ within us, to transform how we approach even the most mundane tasks. The manna in the desert sustained physical life, but the living bread sustains and nourishes the soul, enabling us to bring a deeper sense of purpose and meaning to every aspect of our lives.
It calls us to slow down, make quality time to attend to relationships, practice the silence of Christian Meditation, read and study sacred scripture. And to bring this eternal presence to the daily tasks of living in this world.