STRENNA
2007
by Pascual Chávez Villanueva
LOVING LIFE
The BREAD OF LIFE
“I am the bread of life. If anyone eats of this bread he will live for ever. The bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh”. (Jn. 6,51)
Not unusual in wisdom literature is the image of the banquet used to illustrate wisdom and foolishness, and to point out that both depend on the choice that the individual makes to nourish mind and heart and to shape one’s own life. By way of example I quote the text from the Book of Proverbs which highlights the contrast between wisdom and its opposite: “Wisdom has built her house, she has set up her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table. She has sent out her maids to call from the highest places in the town: “Whoever is simple let him turn in here.” To him who is without sense she says: ”Come eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave simpleness and live, and walk in the way of insight.” (9,1-6). On the other hand, the foolish one “sits at the door of her house, she takes a seat on the high places of the town, calling to those who pass by who are going straight on their way: “Whoever is simple let him turn in here!” And to him who is without sense she says: “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant”. He does not know that the dead are there and her guests are in the depths of Sheol. (9,13-18).
There is nothing new then in the fact that immediately after the multiplication of the loaves, Jesus explains this sign, saying that if he has been able to multiply the bread it is because he himself is the bread of life. From this point of view, the words “I am the bread of life. If anyone eats this bread he will live for ever” do not cause any scandal because they are understood in sapiential terms, as figurative language, a symbolical expression indicating that his teaching is real food that nourishes human life and leads to success. The scandal arises when Jesus adds: “The bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh!” (Jn. 6,48.51). Certainly, the word of Jesus is bread that enlightens the mind and strengthens the heart, so that there are people who when faced with the Gospel begin to see things (God/man/world) differently and with the “mind of Christ.” They find a way of seeing things in contrast to that of the world and they willingly accept it, joyful because finally they discover the meaning of life and they are ready to live according to this fascinating and paradoxical logic. In this way Christians become disciples of the Master Jesus.
But Jesus goes further, he reveals the depth of his inner self: he if the Word of God made flesh in the womb of Mary. Whoever hears the word feels hunger for the word, that is for him who is the true bread capable of satisfying the inalienable desire for happiness, for life, for love. The word becomes bread and the disciple becomes his table companion, called to a personal communion, to the most profound intimacy there can be between God and man. The full journey of the one who hears the Gospel consists in passing from listening to baptism and from baptism to the eucharist. But is it really possible to eat the flesh of the Son of God? Isn’t this “a hard saying” to accept, as some of Jesus’ own disciples said (Jn. 6,60) who from that moment “drew back and no longer went about with him”? Faced with Christ who presents himself as the word in which to believe and as the bread that gives life the people are scandalised and divided. In our days too. The words of Jesus appear unacceptable to those who think of themselves as “wise” and have their own answers to the fundamental questions of life. But for those who have experienced the power of the Easter mystery, there is no other choice than that of Peter: “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (Jn. 6,68).
When a person loves some one very much they want to give them everything even their own life, as Paul writes to the Christian community in Thessalonica: “So being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us” (1Thess 2,8). So, Jesus made his body that he received from Mary the chosen instrument to express his love for us to the very end: “Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends” (Jn. 15,13); and in instituting the eucharist he made his body and blood the visible and effective sacrament of this love of his: “This is my body which is given for you … This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Lk 22,19.20). Jesus is the bread of life, and who eats his flesh and drinks his blood lives for ever, because he allows himself to be transformed in such a way by this new life that he is capable of becoming in his turn bread broken and drink poured out for others. This is the reason for the scandal in the face of Jesus the word and the bread of life!
