We Americans have become a people of snacks. We certainly cannot complain about lacking any food in our diet, but we are known especially for our consumption of snack foods. How much chocolate do we enjoy on a weekly basis? How often do we partake of some form of chips or popcorn when we are enjoying some free time? We love to eat these tasty treats, perhaps to a fault, as repeated warnings concerning obesity remind us. Yet we still have a fundamental understanding that man does not live on snacks alone.
God reveals to us that this is also the case not merely in our physical reality but also in our spiritual relationship with Him. Just as our bodies are meant to be nourished by a solid diet, so too are our souls nourished by a proper diet and not merely on snacks. Look to our first reading to begin to understand this. The Israelites are complaining because they no longer have their luxurious meals as they once enjoyed while being slaves in Egypt. God has freed them from this subjugation, yet they are sorrowful that this has been done! Insteading of beseeching God for His help, they complain to Him! Yet God, ever mindful of their needs, pours down upon them bread from heaven.
This miracle is above all what strikes the Israelites for generations to come. Few other events are recalled as often as the bread come down from heaven, as we see from our psalm. It is this event which the people recall in our Gospel today, when they ask Our Lord for a miracle. Nothing else done in the desert was as remarkable as God providing the food needed to make the great journey out of Egypt. And this is what stands out in this episode of the Gospel which began for us last week.
Recall that Christ fed 5,000 men last week at the beginning of this chapter. Continuing this week, we hear that many of the crowd followed Him after He left, seemingly desiring more. They want to understand who is this Jesus who can seemingly produce bread from so little. His miracle recalls to their mind the manna from the desert, that bread from heaven we heard about in the first reading. Christ points them towards seeking that which lasts unto eternal life, trying to elevate them and us beyond merely physical concerns. But the crowd raises a question: How can we do this?
Two answers are given to them. First, Christ tells them to believe in the one whom the Father has sent, that is to believe in Him. All must start from faith in Christ if we are to be what God desires us to be. Saint Paul wishes this for all of us as expressed in our second reading when he tells the Ephesians to no longer live as the Gentiles they once were, but to live in this faith which comes to the new self. The second answer given is to receive the true bread from heaven, which brings life to the world.
But what is this true and life-giving bread? As the end of today’s Gospel reveals, Christ Himself is the true bread come down from heaven, the bread of life given to us by the Father. It is Christ who will aid us in maintaining and even increasing our faith in Him. He becomes for us the spiritual food necessary for us to live as spiritual beings, just as regular food aids us to be corporeal beings. The Eucharist is the meal we are meant to receive so that our souls may be nourished.
If the Eucharist is truly the bread of life, then we must receive it in accord with why Christ has given it to us. We must prepare ourselves for so great a meal by calling to mind the reason this is offered to us: our growth in and with God. We must cleanse ourselves of everything that prohibits us from receiving this spiritual meal worthily and to our benefit by receiving the absolution of confession frequently. And we must not disregard this spiritual food which we have received as if it is only a nice snack. What we are given is the true nourishment of the soul, that which is most necessary for us to live in union with God through Christ in the Holy Spirit. We must receive and treasure this gift in every way possible.
Let us then receive the bread of angels become our bread of life with joyous and thankful hearts. Let us receive this bread as often as possible so as to truly fulfill that wondrous phrase we pray in the Our Father: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Let us not disregard or belittle this immense and necessary food as we would some earthly food, but treasure each time we receive Him from the hands of the priest. Let us be mindful of the necessity of the Eucharist in our own spiritual lives, as the food whereby God cares and feeds us just as He did for the Israelites. Let us desire to be strengthened by this heavenly bread so as to live our lives more oriented to God each day and to be prepared for the glories of the feast which awaits us in eternal life.
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