Life in a living bread

Who among us has not dreamt a kind of life he or she has wanted to live? Not one of us, maybe, unless we are simply drifting aimlessly, knowing not where the right directions are found; living to eat and drink and be merry, gorging our appetites with every pleasure and satisfaction of the flesh. Many envision a life of success in every human endeavor — in business enterprise and industry, in the arts and sciences. They would be teachers, the savants of the world. Life such as that of the entrepreneur who feels he holds the reins and drives as if nobody would dare cross his path. That, he intends to maintain at all cost over his dead body.

Now, lawmakers feel they are determinants of what life they would have the masses live. They are those who throw a vindictive towards the mass of people most of them marginalized and poor. The weapons against these poor are stigma which goes by the expressions, "You have no right even to live on this dumpsite; you are squatting on land that is not yours, so get out; vend in the market, not on the sidewalks. While the same lawmakers, even leaders of the nation live their extravagant life afforded by all the material possessions acquired through graft and corruption. And our poor–they cannot even afford the lowly pan de sal; simply they cannot afford to have their daily bread.

To such as these did Jesus pour His compassion multiplying five barley loaves and two fish to feed five thousand such poor and in travail. Even among poor, who could believe Jesus, the poor son of Mary and Joseph the carpenter, when He declared, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; Whoever eats this bread will live forever and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world" (Jn. 6:51).

Whatever kind of life we choose to live will surely end in the grave. Only that which we draw from taking the living bread is life promised to us that is forever. The Living Bread is supreme mystery of our faith, our most intimate link to God. God is present in the birth, the growth and the consummation of all things. The earthly undertaking which is beyond all parallel is the physical incorporation of the faithful into Christ.

You, Lord Jesus, are the epitome and the crown of all perfection. No flash of beauty, no enchantment of goodness, no element of force but finds you, the ultimate refinement and fulfillment of itself. You who are yourself the fullness of created being are also the fullness of my personal being and of all living creatures who accept your dominion. In you and in you alone as in a boundless abyss, can our powers launch forth into activity and find surcease for their tensions, can show their full capacity without encountering any limitation, can plunge into Love itself which You are.

Shelter us into the mystical bonds of your body which is living bread for the life of the world. I gather within your most loving embrace those whom I love; the multitude of beings, too, I long to help, to enlighten, to lead to you. Let us all draw light and strength, the very life You alone, O living Bread, can give for the life of the world.

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, John 6:51-58