17/08/2024
This day, AUGUST 18, we are in the TWENTIETH SUNDAY in ORDINARY TIME.
Jesus the Bread from Heaven that Gives Eternal Life
(Jn 6:51-58)
Gospel:
Jesus said to the crowds:
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the world."
The Jews 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 do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food,
and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me
will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever."
REFLECTION:
What we receive in the small piece of bread or the sip of wine at the Eucharist is the gift of life from Jesus. This is a sharing in the life of God; in the fragility of the bread and wine is strong food, and joyful drink - fruit of God's creation and work of human hands. It is the gift of God who has become one of us. It is the gift of love with sacrifice. If we have put self out for others in big or small ways, or have cried for another's woes or laughed for another's joy, or held a hand in sympathy or just listened when there were no answers, we know the quality of this gift. In the Eucharist God is close in his creation, In Jesus we can recognise God near at hand. Pope Benedict writes - 'we have to rediscover God, not just any God, but the God that has a human face, because when we see Jesus Christ we see God'.
