Homily for 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
19th Sunday of Ordinary Time

John 6: 41-51
August 9, 2009
Willow Towers, New Rochelle

“Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die” (John 6: 49-50).

Last Sunday our 1st reading told how God gave manna to the Israelites in the desert, and in my homily I quoted this verse about the Israelites dying. The manna was called heavenly food because it seemed to have been miraculously provided, almost as if appearing out of thin air. It was really a natural phenomenon in the Sinai desert, but the Israelites didn’t know that after spending their whole lives in Egypt. As far as they were concerned, this food was providentially available to them.

The manna enabled them to survive in the wilderness, and it enabled them to continue their long journey toward the Promised Land; but it didn’t offer them eternal life. Eventually most of them, including Moses, died before they got to the land of Canaan, the land of milk and honey, the Holy Land. In the books of Exodus and Numbers, God makes it clear that they wander in the Sinai wilderness for so long, 40 years, unable to enter the Promised Land, in punishment for their many rebellions against God’s leadership and authority, until almost that entire generation had died.

Jesus compares himself to the manna by calling himself “the bread that came down from heaven” (6:41). But he also contrasts himself with the manna: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven…so that one may eat it and not die. Whoever eats this bread will live forever” (6:50-51). Whoever eats this bread will reach the Promised Land, will not die as a sinner in rebellion against God’s lordship.

The people who are listening to Jesus in the synagog at Capernaum—that’s where this whole long conversation is taking place—these people listening don’t understand. They know him, or think they know him, as the son of Joseph the carpenter and Mary (6:42). This isn’t the only place in John’s gospel where people misunderstand Jesus’ origin, and consequently misunderstand him (cf. 7:40-43). If one judges Jesus only on what he sees, he misses the real Jesus, the Jesus who comes from our heavenly Father, the Jesus who gives eternal life. Naturally this concept of hidden reality also applies to the sacramental Jesus, the 1st hint of which comes in the closing line of today’s gospel: “the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (6:51), which will be “fleshed out” (pun intended) in next week’s gospel.

The real Jesus isn’t Joseph’s son but God’s Son. Therefore the real Jesus can offer divine life to whoever is willing to accept it, to whoever will believe in him: “I will raise him on the last day” (6:44). Jesus offers us reconciliation with God, the forgiveness of sin, the restoration of humanity to our status as God’s children. Go back to the words of the Opening Prayer: “Almighty and ever-living God, your Spirit (which is the gift of Jesus to us) made us your children, confident to call you Father. Increase your Spirit within us and bring us to our promised inheritance.” Reconciliation, forgiveness, restoration are all the key to our inheritance, to resurrection unto eternal life and a place in our Father’s home.

Jesus is the bread of life: when we sink our teeth into his word, his teaching, the example of his life; when we digest it and make it part of us—then we claim a share in his divine life, and he will raise us up to live with him.

As Jesus continues this long discourse on the bread of life next week, he’ll develop his teaching still further, as I said earlier. He’ll give it a precious sacramental meaning. Jesus as “the bread of life” is more than a metaphor. It’s a priceless, life-giving sacramental reality.