Homily originally presented on August 19, 2018

For several weeks now, our weather has been hot and rainy. But three months from now our weather will turn cold ... and might even include snow and ice. 

We’re very sensitive to those times here in the South such that when a winter storm is predicted to be coming  our way. What do we do? We head to the grocery store!

And what is it we buy?    Bread & Milk!     Right?

Yes,  both of those food items have a shelf life ... and so we normally only buy a little at a time ... knowing we’ll pick up some fresh items on our next visit.

But, when the threat of running out of those foods comes along because of a predicted storm & icy roads, we go out and get some more ... just to be sure.

The News tell us that the shelves of Bread and milk empty quickly before a storm.

Having bread & milk in the house is a sign that our future nourishment is secure.

What’s your favorite kind of bread?  What would you grab off the shelf to buy?

“SHOW LOAF OF BREAD”

Would it be ...         

   White bread, Whole Wheat bread, Rye bread, French bread, Italian bread?

We all have our favorites.

Well, for the last 3 weeks we’ve been talking about another kind of bread  ...

one that does not come from the store.

No, this bread is very special ... this Bread comes from Heaven!

Here’s a little review:

The Israelites of the Old Testament had a fond place in their hearts for

what they called Bread from Heaven … what were they referring to?

To them, Bread from Heaven always referred to ... the Wisdom of God!

This included the Ten Commandments, the Law of Moses and the Torah.

All of these things were given to them by God and they brought life to Israel!

These things were considered “Bread” ... come down from Heaven!

Well today, Jesus stands before the people and makes a striking revelation ...

 saying,       “I am the living Bread that came down from Heaven.”

This meant that ... not in written form ... but in the form of a living person ...

God had now sent His Wisdom to the people! 

Wow!    How incredible that had to sound to the people.

Incredible indeed! That’s exactly what God the Father did when He sent His Son to be with us as a Man.         God sent us the fullness of His wisdom …

    He sent us true Bread come down from Heaven!

Recall, St. Paul’s declaration in 1^st Corinthians where he said,

“Christ, the Wisdom of God and the Power of God.”

Jesus is both ...  the Wisdom of God ... and the Power of God!

And Jesus wants to share both ... His Wisdom ... and His Power ... with us.

So, the question is: How do you get the wisdom and power of God in you?

You take it in … you feed on it ... you feed on the Word and the Power of God.

So important is it to feed on God’s word ... that God asked some Prophets ...

to literally eat the scroll on which His word was written!

In the First Reading at Mass this past Monday, God told the Prophet Ezekiel,

“Eat what is before you, eat this scroll.      When he did God said,

     “go now to the house of Israel and speak my words to them.”

Yes, Jesus wants us to feed on His words … as the way we acquire his Wisdom.

This is why the Church proclaims the Gospels at every Mass ... every day.

It’s in the Gospels that we hear Jesus speaking His wisdom to us.

That’s why we stand when the Gospels are proclaimed …

to reverence that we are listening to God Himself, Jesus, speak to us.

Feeding on God’s word is important … it’s very important … but there’s more!

Jesus wants us to feed on His Wisdom …but He also wants us to feed on His Power.

How do we do that?        How do we take His Power into our person?

We do it in the most natural way there is … by eating …

by eating Bread from Heaven ... not eating the scroll of His words ...

but eating Jesus ... who is the Word made flesh.

That’s what Jesus reveals today ...

we acquire His Power when we feed on ... His Flesh and Blood!

That’s pretty strong stuff!

So strong that the Jews had quite a difficult time hearing it.

John records today, “The Jews quarreled among themselves saying,

‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’”

But, Jesus reiterates 4 times ... that the Bread that He will give them is His Flesh!

What He’s doing here is preparing them for ...

something He will make clear to them at the Last Supper.

There, He will establish the way to feed us with his Power in the context of ...

     a Holy Meal ... a meal where the elements of Bread and Wine

are miraculously changed into His Flesh and Blood as food for believers.

Yes, by God’s design and desire, He offers to feed us with Himself, so that He, God can be united to us in a most special way and He can impart His power to us.

“SHOW LARGE HOST”

Jesus offers His Power to us in the Eucharist ,

the miraculous Bread from Heaven,

that we can receive in a Holy Meal … the Mass.

It’s in the Eucharist that we get to have ...

 the most intimate union possible this side of Heaven ...

a Holy Communion  ... a union with Jesus … the All-Holy Son of God.

By the miracle Jesus instituted at the Last Supper,

Jesus becomes our food and drink, over and over again.

This is why understanding Jesus’ Bread of Life Discourse in John 6 is so important … it’s here Jesus reveals the access we have to the Wisdom and Power of God.

Recall what Lady Wisdom foretold in our first Reading.      She said,

“Come eat of my food and drink of my wine … that you may live.”

Jesus reiterates this in our Gospel today when He says, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you.

Here, Jesus is telling the people how they need to nourish themselves to have life, now and forever.   How?     They must feed on Him in order to have life in Him.

Well, the Jews couldn’t picture how this was to happen ... and so they murmured,

“How can this be?”

That’s probably the same question that the Jews asked 1200 years earlier when God fed them with Manna in the Desert! What a truly unexplainable miracle … to wake up every morning and find bread there on the sand of the desert. Imagine that!  And this went on for 40 years! So surely they asked themselves, “How can this be?”

And then just a few days before this Gospel passage, in the verses we read at the beginning of John 6, Jesus performed the great miracle of feeding 5000 people from just 5 loaves, surely they asked themselves, “How can this be?”

In those two miracles with bread, God showed the people that he had the power to multiply food to feed them physically. And now, in today’s Gospel, Jesus is calling the people to believe that somehow, someway He also has the power to multiply Himself in the bread ... so as to feed them spiritually too!

Little did they know that Jesus would take one of the most natural things that we do, eating, and use it as the way that He would feed us with Himself. We call it Holy Communion. That’s when God, who is holy, comes into our very bodies!

Why does Jesus want us to eat his Flesh?

It’s because he wants us to be prepared to have Everlasting Life with Him.

He loves us ... and He wants us to be united with Him now and forever.

He knows that we need His Wisdom and His Power to do this.    

For if Jesus is alive in us now … then we’ll be alive in Jesus later!

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Just as … I have life because of the Father,

 so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of Me.”

What is the Bread we need for Eternal Life?    Is it white, rye, or wheat?

No, the bread we need is not from the store ... it’s from... Heaven ... it’s Jesus.

Jesus is the living Bread come down from Heaven ...

          and whoever eats this Bread will live forever!

For, Jesus is ... the Wisdom of God ... and the Power of God.

We take in the Wisdom of God when we feed on Jesus’ words in the Gospels.

We take in the Power of God when we feed on Jesus’ Flesh in Holy Communion.

Eating the Eucharist, is the way that Jesus designed for us to take in His Power … for by a huge miracle His Flesh and Blood are veiled in the Bread and Wine!

What happens when we eat store-bought bread?

 It is metabolized by our body and it becomes us ... the bread becomes us.

What happens when we eat bread consecrated at Mass ... Heavenly Bread?

Well, the physical wafer of bread is still metabolized by our body ...

but the sacramental presence and power of Jesus is absorbed by our Soul ...

and we become more like Jesus!

In this way ... the Bread doesn’t become us ... we become the Bread!

Perhaps you’ve heard the saying ... “You are what you eat!”

Well, never was this more true than when you eat the Eucharist ...

because in doing so you become more and more like Jesus!

How do you become more and more like Jesus?

How do you nourish your heart to be kind, compassionate and loving like Jesus?

You feed on Him!

You feed on His words in Scripture, and

You feed on His Flesh in Holy Communion.

God, who yearns to draw us to Himself ...  has made both available to us.

Actually, He wants us to consume His Wisdom and Power every day, ...

as Jesus said in the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day ... our Daily Bread!”

And don’t worry about overeating!

While eating a lot of white bread may have a negative effect on your body,

eating a lot of Heavenly Bread only brings positive effects ...

on your heart & on your soul!