The concept of ‘Understanding’ is a recurring feature of today’s readings. In Proverbs we are advised to forsake foolishness and advance in the way of understanding; St. Paul encourages the community in Ephesus to try to understand the will of the Lord, and in our Gospel reading we find those following Jesus struggling to understand what he means when he says, ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven’.
This particular ‘I am’ saying of Jesus posed a personal challenge to me when I was diagnosed with gluten intolerance a number of years ago. When my consultant discovered that I had been a regular participant in the Eucharist for over 40 years, he informed me that the Bread of Eternal Life in today’s Gospel would ultimately become a source of serious illness were I to continue in my reception of the Eucharist as before. This enforced and significant adjustment to my daily life and to my celebration of faith, led me to revisit John Chapter 6 and come to a very different understanding of Jesus as ‘the living bread that came down from heaven’.
Rather than focus primarily on the meaning of the flesh and blood with which the Jewish audience struggles to come to terms in today’s Gospel, a focus that has also been a source of significant division within the history of Christianity, I came to understand that we need to look once again at what it means to really ‘feed’ on Jesus and to have ‘life’ because of him.
In my own ‘post-Coeliac’ search for understanding, I found myself returning to Gospel passages where table fellowship featured in the ministry of Jesus. At Cana, those enjoying the wedding meal discovered that life in Jesus is a joyful gift to be lived in abundance each day. A meal of celebration marks the conclusion of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, demonstrating that reconciliation is central to having life in Jesus. The meal shared at the Last Supper is directly connected to service, life in Jesus means washing the feet of those who are in need and, of course, the Sunday evening meal that the two disciples on the road to Emmaus shared with Jesus brought both joy and courage into their lives, as they rushed back through the darkness to tell the others that Jesus was risen.
So when John Chapter 6 features as the Gospel of the day and I hear Jesus telling his followers that ‘the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world’, I now focus not so much on the ‘flesh’ but on where followers of Jesus can bring his ‘life’ to the world.
Jesus has shown us that we live in him and are filled with the Spirit not only when we celebrate the Eucharist with our community but also when we are reconciled with those we have fallen out with, when we offer service to those who are in need and when we have the courage to joyfully proclaim in our homes, our schools, our parishes and in our society that Jesus is ‘the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever.’ (Jn 6:51)
PS I am most thankful of all those parishes who offer gluten-free hosts so that I, and many others like me, can participate fully in the Eucharist.
Tom Ryan
