19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
1 Kings 19:4-8 Ephesians 4:30-5:2 John 6:41-51
Today and on the last two Sundays and for the next two Sundays we read from Chapter 6 of Saint John’s Gospel. It begins with the miracle of the Loaves and Fishes and builds up to the point where Jesus asks his disciples to accept that he is the Bread of Life and his are the words of Eternal Life. John is a powerful preacher of the Gospel and that is why he is often portrayed in art as The Eagle. The eagle can soar from the very ground itself to lofty heights. John is sometimes portrayed as a Skylark for the same reasons that it lives on earth and can fly dramatically into the heights. Saint Francis of Assisi loved all animals but the Lark was his favourite bird not only for its beautiful song, but because its earthy brown colour and lighter hood made its plumage resemble the Franciscan habit! John, the Lark, keeps linking the things of earth with heavenly thoughts.
The Jews in the Gospel today are all confused. They cannot reconcile heavenly things with what is familiar; ‘the son of Joseph’-‘come down from heaven’! They need to rise up in a leap of Faith, to soar with the eagle in a flight of Faith.
Faith is the acceptance of a divine truth. John in today’s Gospel reading tries to explain what it entails. Faith is, firstly, a gift from God – ‘no one can come to me unless drawn by the Father’. Also, Faith, based on the words and signs of Jesus relies on our cooperation with this gift of the Father and the teaching of Jesus.
So, this Jesus, who is indeed son of Joseph and Mary, a man of history, is also the one come from the Father to link us, earthly creatures, to the heavenly mysteries. What more earthly, basic thing with which to do this than with bread! Bread can be seen in the same way as the ‘manna in the desert’, which merely sustains earthly existence. But the bread that Jesus gives will give eternal life: ‘Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever’!
This calls for Faith – the acceptance of a divine truth. Bread, from being a sign and symbol of providence and nourishment, has become a Sacrament. A Sacrament is a sort of symbol which transmits a divine energy to the one who receives it. This divine energy is none other than the Body of Christ. John, the Skylark or Eagle, began his Eucharistic narrative with the miracle of the Loaves and Fishes as a sign of the supernatural power of Jesus. Now he soars to the heights of the divine reality where the ‘Bread of Life’ is given to satisfy the hungers of the human heart and mind.
‘Taste and see that the Lord is good. They are happy who seek refuge in Him’.