19th Sunday OT , year ’B’
“Meanwhile the Jews were complaining to each other about him, because he had said, ’ I am the Bread that has come down from Heaven’. They were saying, ’Surely this is Jesus, son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know. How can he now say, ’I have come down from heaven?’”
The Jews are murmuring about Jesus’ identity. Jesus comes from God, he will try to doubly define himself on the one hand concerning his Father, he comes from Him and he alone has seen Him, and on the other hand, concerning men : he is the one who gives himself to mankind so as to transmit life.In his Life, his Body, and Blood that will poured out, Jesus gives himself so as to conquer the mystery of iniquity of the world, of evil spread throughout the world.We give thanks to God who comes to the help of our suffering and who frees us through Christ. Isaiah signaled this :’ As a sheep is led to the slaughter house, like a dumb lamb before its shearer, he didn’t open his mouth. Because of his humiliation he has been condemed. Who can talk about his destiny? For his life has been takeup from the earth.“….. This is what those who recriminate understand. Jesus has us recapitulate everything in him. The whole universe participates in his greatest glory, in his greatest love. At the heart of humanity in quest of Love, the Holy Spirit gathers together every person who is drawn to God. Humanity, attracted by the Father, is totally transformed in Jesus Christ. God fulfills every dimension of our lives, all that we are, so that we can be regenrated in Him. The Holy Spirit is at work to build a civilisation of Love. The benevolence given to us transforms the universe fundamentally.”Jesus said in reply tot hem, ’Stop complaining to each other. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise that person up on the last day.. It is written in the prophets : ’ They will ll be taught by God; everyone who has listened tot he Father,and learnt from Him, comes to me. Not that anybody has seen the Father, except he who has his being from God : he has seen the Father.In all truth I tell you, he who believes has eternal Life."
Jesus told them, ’You don’t know me! The proof : you don’t know where I come from. I am the One who comes from God, and through this I am the one who
has seen the Father.’ ’This is where my true identity lies, in this unique relationship between me and my Father who is your God. Jesus sets aside therefore tha double objection of the Jews, but by the very fact, arise another one even bigger, which for them makes up a real blasphemy.: he is the Son of God. Jesus says that ’No one can come to him if the Father who sent Him doesn’t draw him to Himself’, the, ’Every man who listens to the teachings of the Father comes to me. Certainly, no one has ever seen the Father , but for the one who came from God. This one alone has seen the Father, except the one come from God : this is the true one who has seen the Father.’ So the nature of the Son of God, of his being is to be turned towards God.He receives his existence from this very movement, the Word is Son through what He receives from the Father, and the Father is Father because he gives Life to the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is this relationship that gives identity to the Father and to the Son and it is this very realtionship that has it exist. Received in faith, Chrsit’s sacrifice will pacify the whole of humanity especially those men and women who are in most need of being comforted. The misery in the world will be transfigured by Chris’t suffering. There is something so surprising to contemplate here! At the very heart of Creation, the wheat and the grape, the bread and wine, contribute to transforming the whole universe into the Eucharist. Chrsit’s Passion in the Eucharist is lived through the presenece of the whole of humanity and especially those who suffer most, who can offer their life with Christ : “I achieve in my flesh what is lacking in Christ’s Passion’” The Church celebrates this mystery in humanity going through wars, it infuses into it anew Love. Transformed in this way,the world is recapitulated in the Eucharistic Body of Christ. The bread that I shall give is my flesh for the whole world
“In all truth I tell you,everyone who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. yourfathers ate manna in the desert and they are dead ; but this isthe brea=d which copes down from heaven, so that aperson may eat it and not die. I am the living bread which comes down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
Today Jesus tells us about this unity between him and our God. For having received everything from the father, he can only manifest what he received, that is, the Father, for the Son has nothing by Himself. Likewise, the Father, having given erything to his Father, has only his Son to give this is why all he can do is to show us his Son. The Word is turned towards the Father, he
olunges in the Mystery of the Father, thus he can manifest his secret, and the very secret of the Father is his Son. The Father’s Love is like thasecret and motive of the Incarnation of the Word. And the Son is the object and the end of the love of the Father’s Love. In this way Jesus announces the mystery of the celebration of his sacrifice, for us today in the Eucharist. This mystery is celebrated in memorial for the Salvation of the world. tHis is how we are introduced into the perspective of the Bread of Life. on the eve of his passion, Jesus took the bread and said, ’Take and eat, this is my Body. He takes the wine and says : ’Take, and drink, this is my Blood.’ It really is the Blood of Christ thatw as spread out on the crossonce and for all and for the salvation of all. It really is his murdered flesh that will be given to the world so that it lives no longer from this murderous passion but from a passion of Love. ’In his flesh, he has killed hatred.’ so that we may have life.