The Bread of Life

​A Reflection on the Gospel for Sunday, August 11th, 2024:
​Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

---

John
6.41-51​

The people began to complain about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw them; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.

“I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

As a convert to Catholicism, this Gospel is near and dear to my heart. I remember my first experience of Eucharistic adoration, where I had the simple thought: “If this is actually Jesus, then He’s right in front of me” – and even just the thought of the possibility of His presence was overwhelming, as I was filled with awe and fear and hope and love and conviction. The richness of the theology of transubstantiation – the real presence of Christ in the bread we consume at Mass – was what made me fall in love with the Catholic Church. 

After all, I thought, if the bread is only a symbol, then so much of its power is lost! In the same way that God became man in the person of Jesus, God’s love is made real to us in the blessed bread. He becomes tangible to us, physically palpable, consumable, transformative. When I receive the bread at Mass, I touch Him; I become the woman who touched his cloak and received healing after 12 years (Mark 5:25-34). I am healed, made new, inspired; I become a vessel of His grace. We may not see His actual human body, but we can see, taste, and feel His body, given for us, and we become one with Him.

When I watch as the congregation receives communion at Mass, it is a beautiful thing to consider, that so many people are drawn to become one with Jesus every Sunday, or even every day. At a recent retreat for the priests of our diocese, our own Archbishop Dunn spoke of the transformation that happens in the Eucharist, and that through consuming and adoring the Blessed Sacrament in light of God’s sacrifice for us, the congregation then becomes transformed into the Body of Christ. This concept completes my vision as I watch people receive the Body of Christ and return to their pews – the inspiration of Christ, now moving in the world with a new body, as the Holy Spirit is contained in all of us. There is nothing more powerful or beautiful… but in order for this vision to be realized, we must believe. Lord, help our unbelief! 

Saint Thomas the Apostle, pray for us!




Lindsay Elford

---