When you hear a scripture passage like this one where Jesus is talking about a complex topic, it is easy to be confused. The people listening to him were often very confused. I know I am sometimes too and then I think, what if I had been there 2,000 years ago when he spoke, would I have understood? Or would I have walked away thinking I don’t understand that guy. I fear I would have been one of the ones walking away!

And here we are today with one of these passages that can be a little confusing… but one that is incredibly important to our beliefs as Catholics. Jesus as the bread of life. Let’s take a closer look to understand why it is so foundational to our faith.

Jesus has been speaking to a crowd in Capernaum telling them that he is the bread come down from heaven. People were murmuring saying, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary? Do we not know his father and mother?” I love that Jesus tells them to, “stop murmuring among yourselves.” Yet he persists in saying, “I am the bread of life”. His disciples and the people listening to him are confused.

Well, with 2,000 years of learning, we and our Church understand better what Jesus is saying, and it is the cornerstone to our faith. Right here in this reading.

We Catholics come to Mass to hear the word of God, to learn a little something each week, and to receive the Eucharist. We want to be fed spiritually and grow closer to Jesus. That is exactly what he wants too! In this reading Jesus says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven” which he certainly is. But what does he mean by living bread?

God sent Jesus into the world to teach us, to lead us, and to save us. That is truth, and that is the first way he came down from heaven when he was physically here. Hence the “living bread” descriptor because he fed us while he was here.

But he is also living bread come down from heaven a second way for us and this is that cornerstone to our faith I mentioned, and it is his gift to us. You see, at the last supper, Jesus instituted the Eucharist to his spellbound disciples that night. He opened their eyes and their minds to the true meaning of this very scripture passage from today – the bread of life. 

That night he said, “Take and eat, this is my body….” And we know the rest. And each time we come to Mass, we hear those same words. We will hear them again in a few minutes, in fact, when Father raises the host for all of us to see. It is at that moment that Jesus, working through the priest, transforms or transubstantiates the bread and wine into his body and blood, his flesh that he talks about in today’s Gospel. At this altar, Jesus again comes down from Heaven in the Eucharist before us. 

While the bread and wine look the same, feel the same and taste the same before and after transubstantiation, it is dramatically changed. The Eucharist is not a symbol of his body. It is not a representation of his body. This bread and wine become his flesh and blood in ways we don’t fully understand. But remember, this is spiritual food and not flesh and blood in how we humanly think about our own flesh and blood. If you are confused, join the club! That’s why it is called the Paschal Mystery. 

Fulton Sheen said it well when talking about spiritual food. He said, “Man is the soul as well as the body. Does not his soul demand food? …it is an unearthly hunger. Everything in the universe demands a nourishment that is suited to its nature. Man’s soul is spiritual and therefore demands spiritual food.” We have a Savior who wants to feed us spiritually, to meet our soul’s needs. 

Back to today’s Gospel. Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from Heaven, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” He was the living bread when he walked this earth and he is the living bread in the Eucharist because he lives, and lives within us. And finally, it is in being fed with the Eucharist that we ourselves travel that journey to our eternal home. Eternal life is possible because of living bread.

The Eucharist. The foundation of our Church. The greatest gift ever. The bread that nourishes our soul so that we can grow closer to him and be fortified spiritually on our journey to heaven. 

He truly is the bread of life!