by Fr. Tommy Lane
In the Gospel last Sunday, Jesus repeatedly tried to raise the thinking of the crowd up from the earthly level to the spiritual level. Jesus said it was not Moses who gave them bread from heaven but God, and the crowd asked Jesus to give them that bread always. Then Jesus tried to raise their thinking saying he is the bread. The Gospel today takes that up and continues.
Bread is nourishment for hunger and when Jesus says he is the bread he means he is the nourishment for our spiritually hungry world. His teaching is bread to nourish and heal our upset world. His teaching is spiritual food to give spiritual life to our world, such as: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these you did for me.” (Matt 25:40) “What benefit is it to anyone to win the whole world and forfeit or lose his very self?” (Luke 9:24). Jesus told us of his love for us: No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends (John 15:13). Jesus told us of God’s mercy: there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance. (Luke 15:7) To the woman caught in sin, Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.” (John 8:11) “Be merciful as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:36) All Jesus’ teaching is spiritual bread for our spiritually hungry world.
But the crowd complained. They did not accept that Jesus is bread come down from heaven because they knew Mary and Joseph. Again, Jesus tried to raise the thinking of the crowd to a higher level and said he is the bread of life, meaning the bread that gives life. Since Jesus is the bread of life, the bread that gives life, if we do not seek nourishment from Jesus, we are spiritually dead. If we want life from Jesus, the first thing is to believe Jesus. That is why Jesus says whoever believes has eternal life (John 6:47). And naturally believing in Jesus has implications for everything else in our life as well.
Jesus again tried the raise the thinking of the crowd when he says he is the bread come down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. Up to now, when Jesus spoke about himself as the bread from heaven, we could understand the bread as his spiritual nourishment for us in his teaching, in his parables, in all his words and sayings. But once Jesus starts talking of eating the bread, he is moving us up to a higher level of understanding: the bread that Jesus gives is not just his spiritual food in his teaching—the bread is also Jesus’ gift of himself to us in the Eucharist and that continues in next Sunday’s Gospel.
There are many examples of those who found life from Jesus in the Eucharist. We could think of Marion Carroll in Athlone who was dying from MS and was cured in Knock when blessed with Jesus in the monstrance. Her cure is the first official recognized cure at Knock. Her parish priest wrote what he thought would be her funeral homily while she was in Knock that day because she was so close to death but she walked out of the ambulance that took her to Knock when she arrived home.
Another example of those who found life from Jesus in the Eucharist is the priests who were imprisoned in the concentration camp in Dachau. There were 2,579 Catholic priests, bishops, monks, and seminarians imprisoned in that camp from 1938-1945 and 141 of other denominations. From 1940, priests held in concentration camps throughout Europe were all brought to Dachau. There were thirty barracks in that camp and two of those barracks were always occupied by Catholic priests, and sometimes a third. In the book, The Priest Barracks: Dachau, 1938-1945, we read: “Never in the course of history, even in the worst hours of the French Reign of Terror or Communist persecution, have so many priests, monks, and seminarians been murdered in such a small area: 1,034 gave up their lives.” (p13) At first, the priests could not celebrate Mass there. But due to negotiations between the Papal Nuncio and the German secretary of state, in November 1940, priests were given the right to either say Mass or be present at Mass celebrated by other priests. Part of barrack 26 was converted into a chapel and from January 1941 Mass was celebrated there. It is the only concentration camp that had a chapel and celebration of Mass. Bread and wine for Mass were supplied by the parish priest of Dachau. One lay prisoner who was allowed to attend Mass there wrote:
No longer could I recall the world of the concentration camp. Each one, for a precious moment, was restored to his original, fragile and indestructible dignity . . . On the way out, in the pale light of the early morning, one felt capable of facing a little better the hunger and the fear. (The Priest Barracks p180)
Another lay prisoner wrote:
we rediscovered the idea of Love in the midst of suffering, hunger, egoism, hatred or indifference, and also a palpable sense of calm: the beauty of the altar, the ornaments, the rites, in the midst of our filth and poverty; tranquility, recollection and solitude in the midst of constant overcrowding and all sorts of noises . . . The SS were no longer anything but a sad nothingness beside the splendid, immortal reality of Christ. (The Priest Barracks p180)
Jesus is the bread of life who gives life to us to nourish us spiritually in his teaching and sacramentally in the Eucharist.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2024
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Nineteenth Sunday of Year B
Jesus gives his Flesh for the life of the world 2021
Related Homilies: Jesus’ sermon on the Eucharist 2011
Homilies on the Eucharist Stories about the Eucharist