Christ the Cornerstone

Christ nourishes us as the bread of life

“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (Jn 6:35).

It’s not surprising that Jesus’ followers were confused when he told them that “whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (Jn 6:35). We all get hungry and thirsty regardless of how much we believe in Jesus. What are we to make of this apparently outrageous claim? How should we understand the hunger and thirst that can only be fully satisfied by Jesus, the bread of life?

The Scripture readings for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time provide us with insights into this fundamental truth of our Christian faith.

The first reading (Ex 16:2-4, 12-15) tells us that the Israelites wandering in the desert grumbled against Moses and Aaron. “Would that we had died at the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!” they complained bitterly. “But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!” (Ex 16:3)

The Lord’s response was to send them food—quail in the evening and manna (“fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground”) each morning. On seeing it, the Israelites asked, “What is this?” (Ex 16:15) for they did not know what it was. But Moses told them, “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat” (Ex 16:15).

Just as Jesus fed 5,000 people with five barley loaves and two fish, God “commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven; he rained manna upon them for food and gave them heavenly bread” (Ps 78:23-24). This heavenly bread, and the quail God sent in the evenings, satisfied the physical hunger of the chosen people, but it also restored their trust in the One who had liberated them from slavery in Egypt. It renewed their hope in the promised land, and it allowed them to proclaim with confidence in the words of this Sunday’s responsorial psalm:

“Man ate the bread of angels, food he sent them in abundance. And he brought them to his holy land, to the mountains his right hand had won” (Ps 78: 25, 54).

Clearly there is also a spiritual hunger that is being fed by the “bread of angels” that God sends “in abundance” to his frightened, lost and angry people.

God’s gift of heavenly bread reaches its fullest expression in Jesus, “the bread of life.” What is merely hinted at in the Old Testament becomes concrete in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, which is given to us in the Eucharist. More than physical bread, as necessary as it is, we need nourishment for our souls. We need to look beyond our material needs and wants to food and drink that will sustain us eternally.

In Sunday’s Gospel reading (Jn 6:24-35), Jesus says to the crowd he previously fed with barley loaves and fish:

“Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal” (Jn 6:26-27).

The food that endures for eternal life is Christ himself on whom God the Father has set his seal. It is spiritual food, nourishment for our hungry hearts.

In the second reading for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Eph 4:17, 20-24), St Paul teaches us that:

“You should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth” (Eph 4:22-24).

The only way that we can allow the bread of life, which is Jesus, to sustain us eternally—so that we will never again hunger and thirst—is to be renewed in the Holy Spirit and to put on a “new self” that will live forever in Christ.

Let’s pray that the Holy Spirit will fill our minds and hearts with wisdom and with a profound reverence for the sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood, the holy Eucharist. Let’s also pray for the grace we need to put away our old selves so that we can be transformed by God in the righteousness and holiness of his truth. †