JESUS, OUR BREAD FROM HEAVEN

TUESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE   

Acts 7:51-8:1; Ps 31:3-4,6,8,17,21; Jn 6:30-35

The Father Gives the Heavenly Bread

All who are born of water and the Holy Spirit have the life of heaven or spiritual life. This life was not possible before the passion and death of Jesus Christ, because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Hence, no one could discern the things of heaven or possess heavenly life, for no one came from heaven to reveal God or make his will known here on earth. The Only Begotten Son of God assumed human flesh and lived among us that he might teach us about the Father and reveal the holy will of God to us. The revelation would have no effect if all the children were in bondage to sin and enslaved to the evil one. A slave does not own himself and therefore cannot give himself to another master when he is the slave of another. The only way open to a slave to escape the bondage of his evil master is rebellion, which leads to the death of the slave. God helps us to make use of the available path to escape our slavery by sending his Son to deliver us from slavery. He leads us through the path of death to a new life. So, the Son of Man leads us through the valley of the shadow of death to heavenly life. With the weapon of his heavenly truth and light, he fought on our side through the gate of death to spiritual life and freedom of the children of God.

Our path of escape is the life of the Son of Man; it goes through the wilderness of pains, mortification of the senses, suffering, and death, to the Promised Land of heaven. To navigate the wilderness of poisonous reptiles and scorching heat, we must feed on the spiritual food and drink provided for the journey. This was the attitude and manner of life of the Son of Man, who told us that his food was to do the will of his heavenly Father and to accomplish his purposes. We cannot set any other food for ourselves and expect to make it to the shores of heaven. He reminded the Jews seeking him for sensible signs and physical bread to eat, that they had missed the bread that the Father provides for them from heaven. “I tell you most solemnly, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven; it is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven, the true bread; for the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” The life from below, the sinful life, is sustained by an abundance of physical food and drinks, but the life from above, the spiritual life, is sustained by the bread of God that comes from heaven. The heavenly bread gives us strength to fight the spiritual battle, and subdue our bodies and senses, which are subject to evil, to overcome the evil master and die to self. The new spiritual life we receive from the Son of Man waxes strong as we eat the spiritual food and drink from the spiritual font that accompanies us always.

Subsequently, without faith, no one can receive the gift of heavenly life in the Son of God. To be born of God, we must believe that God exists and reward those who seek him. The refusal to believe in the Son of Man is a refusal to receive the heavenly life. Saint Stephen accused the Jews of obstinacy in their sin of unbelief. “You stubborn people, with your pagan hearts and pagan ears. You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Can you name a single prophet your ancestors never persecuted? In the past they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, and now you have become his betrayers, his murderers, you who had the Law brought to you by angels are the very ones who have not kept it.” From Stephen’s argument, to refuse to believe in the word of God is to be on the side of the flesh and evil, which has conquered our human nature and afflicted us with the fear of death through sin. Following the Son of Man, who sets the will of the Father before himself as his daily food, we must set the Son of Man before us as our daily food and drink. The Eucharistic sacrifice we celebrate is a sacrament and the realisation of the spiritual food we must eat to sustain us in our daily spiritual battle and journey. We must never attend to the ritual alone without the reality. Stephen went beyond the physical to behold God: “I can see heaven thrown open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

Let us pray: O God, who open wide the gates of the heavenly Kingdom to those reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, pour out on your servants an increase of the grace you have bestowed, that, having been purged of all sins, they may lack nothing that in your kindness you have promised. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.