Words of life

At the end of the sixth chapter of John, we may locate ourselves within the scene: among the crowd, among the wider group of disciples, or among the Twelve closest followers of Jesus. The teaching is demanding. As many recognise, ‘This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?’  (John 6:60). Indeed, the passage bears the depth of reflection of the early Church, already living from the mystery of the Eucharist. Yet, whatever its historical development, Christians trust that Scripture is truly the Word of God, communicated through human witnesses under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

'.....my flesh....'

 “I am the living bread,” declares Jesus in Jesus 6:51. What does this mean for us today?

Bread has always been a basic part of human life. Together with water, it sustains and restores the body. In this sense, bread is a sign of life itself. Yet Jesus reminds us that our lives are sustained by more than physical nourishment: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’ (Matthew 4:4).

We recognise this in our own experience. Our lives are nourished not only by food, but also by love, acceptance, truth, and relationships. Even within Scripture, the prophet Jeremiah speaks of God’s word as something to be ‘eaten’, a way of describing how deeply it can nourish and transform us from within (Jeremiah 15:16).