Reflection: In Dialogue with Questions of the Day: Jesus Christ the Bread of Life. Redemption. Murmuring. A Sign to be Contradicted.
Gospel (John 6:51-58). My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
1. While the discourse on Jesus as the Bread of Life in today’s Gospel reading may have the manna tradition and the wisdom tradition of the Bible and Jesus tradition behind it, it is by no means a literary composition on these themes. It clearly sets us the position of Jesus as the way to God. It affirms that, in him, God the Father, speaks to the world, as he did at Jesus’ baptism and at the Transfiguration: “This is my beloved Son”. It speaks of Jesus as redeemer of the human race. The bread that he gives is his flesh, for the life of the world. It speaks of true life through union with Christ and the Father.
2. The discourse speaks of complaining, grumbling, with regard to Jesus’ affirmations and claims. The Jews in his audience, and many of his Jewish followers, find what he has said intolerable and unacceptable and part company with him. Among other things, his assertion on redemption would not be theirs.
3. There is still complaining, grumbling, and outright rejection of what the discourse on Jesus as the Bread of Life stands for in our own day. In part we live in a world where among sections of the intelligentsia there is a quest for redemption without Christ or God. As examples of this, some instance the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky and the Irish playwright Tom Murphy. As noted in the entry under Murphy’s name on the Internet site Wikipedia, recurring themes in his plays include the search for redemption and hope in a world apparently deserted by God and filled with suffering. The theme is explored in his play The Sanctuary Lamp (lit before the Blessed Sacrament reserved). This play explores major themes of redemption, love, guilt, spirituality and the existence – or non-existence – of God. It portrays the struggle of down-and-outs looking to find some kind of meaning to their lives. In common with much of Murphy’s work, this play deals with the battle against nihilism and finds a form of redemption and hope in mankind’s ability to show compassion and love, and to find an individual spirituality. The Lamp itself becomes an image of the light of the human soul unattached to dogma or religion
4. Over the centuries, and in our own day, we encounter complaining, grumbling, about how the Catholic doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ is expressed. When Berengar of Tours (11th century) denied that any change in the elements of bread and wine is needed to explain it, the term transubstantiation (change in the substances) entered as part of the explanation. This term became official in the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), and the Council of Trent (“a fitting and proper” term). Catholic belief in the real presence has been expressed through the centuries in its usage and devotion (consecrated hosts to the sick outside of Mass, reservation of the Blessed Sacrament, and such like). The fact that this divine presence is a mystery of faith should never be forgotten.
5. Since the belief in Jesus as the Bread of Life and Saviour of the world is such a mystery, and since no one can come to him without the Father’s invitation, prayer for belief in Christ is essential.
Fr Martin McNamara MSC