Continuing with the Bread of Life Discourse

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Today as we continue with the Bread of Life Discourse from John 6, we hear the main theme when Jesus says that He is the Bread of Life. He uses that example because bread is the staple food is Israel. In other cultures, rice, corn, beans or potatoes are more important. In Chile, there is no meal without bread. In 1976, I went with 40 youth for a holiday, 100 kilometres south of Santiago in Chile. It was a farming region and one day we went exploring the countryside. We arrived back in the evening, tired and hungry to find that two of the mothers had prepared a meal for us. But there was no bread! The young people spent the next hour mixing the dough by hand and cooking it in the oven. Only then did they sit down to eat.

 

Bread sustains life but life is more than physical existence. There is the deeper spiritual life that gives meaning to all our material needs and desires. Jesus is telling us that true life can only come from our relationship with the Father who gave us that life. It is through Jesus that we enter into that friendship with the Father. But so often we concentrate on the material side. Our pride leads us the judge and criticize others to build up ourselves. Our envy causes us to desire the goods that others have. Pope Leo often quotes the founder of his order, St Augustine who said, ''You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.'' Help us to live a truly fulfilling life by making you the living centre of it.