John 6.51-58
Last week, we heard Jesus tell us again that he is the Bread of Life. Living Bread. At the end of the reading he tells everyone that he gives this bread for the life of the whole world. The bread, he says, is his flesh, his body. The reading for this Sunday begins with those same words of Jesus.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
In these words of Jesus, we hear a promise. We know that when someone makes a promise, we trust that they will do what they say they will do. Jesus makes several promises in this Sunday's reading. We can think about these promises and what they mean.
Promise Number One:
Whoever eats of this bread will live forever
What does Jesus mean, "Live forever"? We have thought about this before.
This is eternal life.
Life with God.
Life without end.
Do we still have to die? Yes. Jesus dies. We will, too.
But what if we worry about dying?
Promise Number Two:
Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day
When Jesus says, "raise them up," what do we think of?
It might remind us of God raising Jesus up, out of the dead.
So we do have to die. Then Jesus will raise us up, out of the dead.
What do we think of when Jesus says, "on the last day"? When is the last day?
We might think of the last day of our life on earth. The last day of this, our first life. Our life that ends.
We might think of Parousia, the eternal day, the time in which God is all-in-all. When there will be no more dying anymore.
Promise Number Three:
Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.
This promise tells us again that we will live and it also tells us why. Death shall not be the end because of Jesus—Jesus, the living bread from God, the living Father.
Well, we knew that already, but it is good to hear it again.
Promise Number Four:
But the one who eats this bread will live forever.
Okay, all four promises are really simply one promise, are they not? One great promise of life eternal. The promise of a time to come.
This is all good news because we know people die. Our loved ones die. We will die, too. And Jesus says, because of him, he will raise us up, and we will live forever. It is the best news, actually.
Except, it does not really help us if we worry about dying, does it?
One word repeats in each of those promises.
Eat.
In order to live, we have to eat.
In order to live forever, we have to eat the bread of life.
This bread—the living bread, the bread that is Jesus—gives us strength for this life and prepares us for the time to come.
How does it do this? How does it give us strength for now, and prepare us for dying and rising?
In the middle of the reading, Jesus says,
Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.
Abide? St. John loves to include that word in his Gospel. It means to make a home and live in that home.
And who lives together in a home? Family.
When we take the bread that becomes Jesus into ourselves, we make a home in him, and he makes a home in us.
When we take the bread that becomes Jesus into ourselves, we live in him, and he lives in us.
When we take the bread that becomes Jesus into ourselves, we enjoy family time together. He with us. We with him.
How close we are to each other!
If we do this, if we continue to make that home in each other, enjoying family time all the way through our lives, does that make dying less worrisome? When it comes to the time of our dying and rising, who will be there with us—in us—to help us through? The one who has done it all before. Will dying be a big deal? Or will we be ready? The member of our family who has done this before goes with us through. We will be strong and we will be prepared.
But for now? Family time together.
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