OUR NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL BREAD


THURSDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE   

Acts 8:26-40; Ps 66:8-9,16-17,20; Jn 6:44-51

Freedom from Darkness of Error

The nature of each creature of God is a certain law which represents the will of God that brings and sustains it in existence. So, the operation of the nature of a thing expresses the will of God for its existence and divine purpose for it. In all creation, we see that each nature has intrinsic and extrinsic bearings. In the former, it maintains the inherent structure of the thing, and in the latter, it relates and corroborates with other natures in the maintenance of a certain stable equilibrium in the universe. This web of relations and correlations of natures reaches its highest complexity in humans. The entire material universe works together to support the human person, made in the image of God. The Scriptures teach us that God created the entire world for the benefit of humanity. But both the human persons and the material universe that God created for their support exist for God’s good pleasure. In such an intricately structured universe like ours, a tempering on the natural structure of any creature has far-reaching effects and consequences, which human minds may not completely comprehend. Thus, sin affected the spiritual structure of the human person and gradually corrupted the universe. Because the human person was created by God to tend and maintain the structure of the material universe, the corruption of his mind and heart by sin destroyed the structural harmony in creation. Saint Paul, therefore, says that creation is longing to enjoy the freedom of God’s children. Cf. Rom 8:19-23.

The corruption of the human mind made it impossible for God to come to us through his creatures, which he creatively structured for that purpose. This made it necessary for the Eternal Word of God to come in human nature. Because we could not correctly acquire the knowledge of the divine from nature, due to the darkness caused by sin in us, the Son of God appeared in our nature to enlighten and save us from the powers of evil and darkness. Unable to be drawn by rational affinity to the Word of God, because of sin, the Word took our flesh to draw us to him by natural affinity. The Son of Man explains this saying: “No one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets: They will all be taught by God, and to hear the teaching of the Father, and learn from it, is to come to me.” Every lesson we learn in life comes from God the Father, for he is the source of all light and truth. Hence, apart from structuring every natural thing in their natures for the education of man, he also patterns our experience for the same purpose of enlightenment of our minds. We come to the Wisdom of God by knowing any truth. The Father, by patterning our daily experiences through his divine will, leads us to Jesus Christ. By following the divine pattern to come to knowledge, we eat of the Word of God and gain life and light. This spiritual food is the bread from heaven that gives life and light.

The immanent and operative structure of sin within a human person forces him to misunderstand divine patterns, thereby causing him to miss out on the divine lessons and food. This caused the Israelites to die in the wilderness in God's presence. “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and they are dead; but this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a man may eat it and not die. I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.” They lacked the capacity and facility to digest the heavenly bread; they only digested the natural part of the bread or manna, and made nothing out of the spiritual part, for they were not yet spiritual. The Resurrection of the Son of Man has endowed us with spiritual life and the Holy Spirit that we may now eat the heavenly bread with facility and spiritual joy. Beware of impostors who work with the evil one to restructure the heavenly bread at any possible level of its presentation: material, emotional, psychological, social, or spiritual. Their purpose is the same: to cause us to misunderstand the will of the Father and reject the heavenly bread. Let us beware! There is so much going on, attempting to restructure our psychological and spiritual understanding of the heavenly bread, so that we may die of spiritual malnourishment. The key is to pay continuous attention to Jesus Christ and the Church. “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.” The Holy Spirit, in union with the Church, guides us to understand what the Father’s will is truly.

Let us pray: Almighty ever-living God, let us feel your compassion more readily during these days when, by your gift, we have known it more fully, so that those you have freed from the darkness of error may cling more firmly to the teachings of your truth. 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. 

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