Jesus is the bread of life that has come down from heaven. To go to him and to believe in him means to never hunger or thirst again.
Jesus exposes the motive of those who have been looking for him. For he tells them to their faces that they look for him only because they had their fill of loaves. And he goes on to urge them to work for the food that lasts forever and gives eternal life. To work, that is to say, for the bread of life.
He brings this to light so that we would see and admit that our hunger is for more than just food. It is also hunger for justice, for freedom, peace, truth, equality, fellowship, unity.
To go to Jesus, the bread of life, and to believe in him, means to have our fill.
He tells us, moreover, that he is the one to give us our fill, no matter what we are hungry for. For he spells out what it means to work for the food that lasts forever and gives eternal life. It means to believe in him, the one on whom the Father, God, has set his seal; his Sent One.
So then, he is the true bread of God that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. He is, in other words, the bread of life. And, yes, if we go to him and believe in him, then we shall have our fill.
Needless to say, to “learn Christ,” to go to him and to believe in him is what it means to be a Christian. And all this means to take him as the Lamb of God of our paschal meal. As the new and better wine of the new covenant. And as our temple. So, there is no need to go to Mount Sion or to Mount Gerizim; he is our worship of the Father in Spirit and truth. Of our Father in heaven who is good to all of us on earth.
To “learn Christ,” to go to him, to believe in him means, besides, to think, feel, love, work, suffer, live like him. And if we do so, we shall have our fill, for sure, and we will be happy forever (SV.EN III:384).
Lord Jesus, you are God’s Word to us and the Bread of Life; let us come to you, so that we may never hunger, and believe in you, so that we may never thirst.
4 August 2024
18th Sunday in O.T. (B)
Ex 16, 2-4. 12-15; Eph 4, 17. 20-24; Jn 6, 24-35
Especially like that last paragraph — “To learn Christ…”
Thanks, Tom, for your comment that I appreciate very much.
The second reading from the letter to the Ephesians reads, in part, “that is not how you learned Christ.” I hope and pray that our being and doing as Christ gets to show, too, that we “have learned Christ” the right way.