Image : Kevin Lallier
19th Sunday Ordinary Time (9 August, 2015)
Reflection - Gospel John 6: 41 – 51
“The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,”
and they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop murmuring among yourselves.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day.”
Let’s just look at one aspect of this profoundly theological passage that informs our own understanding of the Eucharist.
It’s easy to be put off by the seemingly endless repetition in this discourse by Jesus and miss something in the words about an invitation to a fuller, more embracing life; a challenge to raise our eyes above our own immediate and personal horizons.
Jesus’ conflict with the Jews – the “Jews” being, for John, those who opposed Jesus’ teachings – arises from their own narrow understanding of God and the arrogance that comes with presuming to have all the answers. Not an uncommon occurrence in our own times!
Jesus is challenging them to step outside of the box they have tried to put God in and refuses to back down in the face of their murmurings and questions regarding the ordinariness of his origins: “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
We too have our own frames of reference accompanied by the mantras in our heads that keep us comfortable, that want things to be neat and tidy. Often we would rather eat the familiar manna than to seek to understand what it is Jesus is inviting us to do. On one level partaking of this new bread is about a different way of seeing things, about a more expansive way of understanding God, about a God who embraces us, comes to us in the ordinary things of life, as ordinary as bread.
There’s a quote from the movie “Shawshank Redemption” that perhaps contains something of the essence of Jesus’ challenge to each one of us: “Get busy living, or get busy dying.”
Prayer:
Lord, you are the giver of the bread of life,
in the midst of suffering,
we celebrate the promise of your peace;
in the midst of oppression,
we celebrate your promise of freedom;
in the midst of doubt and despair,
we celebrate your promise of faith and hope;
in the midst of fear,
we celebrate your promise of joy;
in the midst of sin and decay,
we celebrate your promise of salvation and renewal;
in the midst of death,
we celebrate your promise of eternal life.
(A prayer adapted from the World Council of Churches Assembly in Vancouver in 1983)
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