XVIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
JESUS-MANNA, TRUE BREAD FROM HEAVEN
By our Pastor, Fr. Carmelo Jiménez
The readings for this Sunday’s Mass, again lead us to reflect on the Eucharist. This Sunday and the following three Sundays, we continue reading from chapter 6 of the Gospel of John.
“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘I will now rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion; thus will I test them, to see whether they follow my instructions or not’” (Ex 16: 4). The desert is presented by the Book of Exodus as an ambivalent reality: on the one hand, it is the place of the revelations of God, the nearness of God’s loving providence and tenderness with his people. But on the other hand, it is the site of clashes between Moses who was sent by God and the Israelites, the place of the deficiencies, of nostalgia, where they were always looking back. It is a place where the conquest of freedom is put at risk. The manna is the answer from God; after just one of the many times they murmured against Moses and God too. The road to the conquest of freedom and the entry into the promise land is long and difficult. “On seeing it, the Israelites asked one another, “What is this?” for they did not know what it was. But Moses told them, ‘This is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat’” (Ex 16: 16).
“Jesus answered them and said, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.’” (Jn 6: 26 – 27). Christ received all those people with what we might misunderstand and think of as a complaint, but no. Jesus would give them a deeper message. Jesus wants people to realize that the bread offered is himself. It is not easy to transcend from the material side and enter into the mystery of Jesus. The Jews certainly thought the multiplication of the loaves was a recollection or remembering the miracle of the manna in the desert and in their way of thinking, they believed that Jesus would be a new Moses who should fulfill the promise. If Jesus was the new Moses he should repeat and prolong the miracle of the manna. But Jesus wants to lead them and us too, to a deeper reflection: he comes to restore human life according to God’s plan.
“So Jesus said to them, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world’” (Jn 6: 32-33). I want to emphasize the play on words: “It was not Moses who gave them the bread”, that sentence is referring to the past, with memories of history. “It is my father who gives you the true bread”, and this is not history, this is for us. Jesus says this for us today. God the Father continues to give us the bread from heaven. Because death can’t come down from heaven, because in heaven there is no death. Only life can come down from heaven, because in heaven there is only life. Therefore, only Jesus came down from heaven because He gives life to the whole world. That manna was only an image, a foreshadowing, but not from heaven. Jesus-manna is life and provides life itself.
Let us pray together with that crowd who followed Jesus that day and let us say: “Lord, give us this bread always” (Jn 6: 34). Glory be to Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament! Amen.