18. August 2024
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From the Gospel according to John (John 6:51-58): I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever. The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.
The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus said to them, Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
As the living Father has sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. It is not like the bread that the fathers ate; they died. But whoever eats this bread will live forever.
Bread of life on two tables
These words are the end of Jesus’ speech on the bread in the Gospel of John (Chapter 6). It began with the multiplication of the loaves. Jesus did not perform this miracle through the logic of the market (buying), but through sharing (if everyone gives what they have, everyone will be full). We should also contribute in this way, even if we think we cannot contribute much.
The people wanted to make him king (like Caesar, who kept the Romans happy with bread and games), but Jesus then speaks of a “bread that came down from heaven”. Even the “fathers” of Israel ate the miraculous manna (a nourishing dew in the desert) in the time of Moses, but Jesus claims: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever.”
We immediately think of the Mass, the Eucharist, the host that we receive in communion. But first of all, we think of the teaching of Jesus (Matthew 4:4: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”).
We should believe in the gospel, then we will live. In the Old Testament, the personified “Woman Wisdom” invites us: “Come, eat of my food and drink of the wine that I have mixed. Turn away from foolishness, and you will live and walk in the way of understanding” (Prov. 9:5-6 = 1st reading).
It is Catholic teaching that the bread of life is served on two tables: on the table of the word (ambo, celebration of the word of God) and on the table of the sacrament (gifts on the altar).
But Jesus also says: “The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” His flesh and blood as “true food and true drink” clearly refers to the celebration of the Eucharist. Jesus not only gives words of wisdom, but also offers himself as a sacrifice on the cross. Thus the Holy Mass is both a meal (of wisdom) and a sacrifice (commemoration of death and resurrection).
Here the evangelist anticipates the Last Supper, where he then only tells of the washing of the feet (as a sign that the Eucharist is a service of love, not the exercise of power).
Autor: P. Christian Mayr
