Reflection
In our Gospel reading from John, we hear Jesus begin what is referred to as the Bread of Life Discourse: “I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that came down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die…whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
Jesus is again describing pouring out His Body and Blood out of love for us. He indeed is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah which the Ethiopian is reading when the deacon Philip is sent to him by the Holy Spirit in our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles.
What is our response to Jesus’ giving of Himself for us?
When Philip explains the passage from Isaiah to the Ethiopian, the man asks Philip, “What is to prevent me from being baptized?” His response is to be claimed for Christ. Philip’s response was to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
In speaking of Himself as the “bread of life,” Jesus refers to the “ancestors” who “ate the manna in the desert, but they died.” Not only did the ancestors physically die, but when we read the book of Exodus we see that the people often complained, not remembering to be grateful for God freeing them from slavery and taking care of them as they wandered in the desert.
As we contemplate Jesus’ Passion and death and Resurrection, our first response is gratitude. It is in gratitude we accept new life in Christ. It is in gratitude that we open ourselves to the power of the Holy Spirit so that others can hear Good News. It is in gratitude that we follow Jesus in giving of ourselves for others.
May we receive the “bread of life” into our hearts and share that bread with the world.
