Thursday of the Third Week of Easter (May 4, 2017): The gift of living bread

Acts 8:26-40
Ps 66:8-9, 16-17, 20 (with 1)
John 6:44-51
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/050417.cfm

USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/17_05_04.mp3

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus says, “I am the living bread from heaven.” Is he only talking about the Eucharist — or is it more than that? When he taught us the “Our Father” prayer, he said we should ask God to “give us this day our daily bread.” Is there a connection between the living bread and our daily bread?

During the Israelites’ sojourn in the desert, God miraculously provided manna when they ran out of their own supplies. It was unlike any bread of human invention. These delicious flakes of wafers appeared on the ground every morning. They lasted only a day and then rotted, because God wanted to teach the people to rely on him daily.

God wants us to do everything we can while relying on him for everything we cannot do, every day, each and every moment. In all that we need — whether it’s money for living expenses or patient love for someone who’s causing us problems — God stretches us beyond our limitations and provides us with his limitless resources.

When I was giving retreats in New Zealand in 2010, my hosts prayed over me: “Lord God, be all that she needs for all that she needs.” I like the way they said that!

“Do you really understand what you’re reading?” That’s the question that Philip asked the Ethiopian in our first reading today. The foreign official had just completed a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and now he wanted to grow closer to God through the scriptures. However, he didn’t meet his Savior until someone explained to him that Isaiah was prophesying about Jesus.

When you pray “give us this day our daily bread”, do you understand what you’re saying? It’s not just about asking God to be the provider of our food. We’re asking God to help us be more like Jesus, the living bread — the Jesus who told his disciples to go out in ministry without traveling bags or food or money, the Jesus who relied on his Father for everything, the Jesus who told us not to worry about what we will eat or drink.

So why do we pray like everything depends on God and act like it all depends on us? Why do we put away extra money “for future needs” while others are unable to meet their current needs? Why do we pay rent on storage sheds to hold possessions that we no longer need while others could benefit from using them?

When we act this way, we’ve forgotten that Jesus, who is the living bread, is our daily bread. We’ve received the Eucharist, the Bread of Life, selfishly, which is hardly what Jesus intended when he instituted the Mass.

Alternatively, when we live believing that God is our provider, we feel safe emptying ourselves, like Christ, to serve the needs of others. In this emptying, we more fully understand the Real Presence of Jesus within us, and only then do we grasp the full meaning of the Real Presence of Jesus in the consecrated, living bread of the altar.