“I am the bread of life…”
Many times, when we think of the Bread of Life Discourse, we think of the Eucharist. John 6 is a central source of Eucharistic doctrine, but is also packed with other doctrines, and linked to many of the mysteries of the Rosary. We are invited to enter into these living mysteries. We pray at the end of the Rosary:
O God, whose only begotten Son, by His life, death, and resurrection, has purchased for us the rewards of eternal life; grant, we beseech Thee, that by meditating on these mysteries of the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. [1]
In each of these mysteries, we have the privilege to “imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise.”
ACTIVITY – Verse Search
Read the Bread of Life Discourse (John 6:22-71). The Bread of Life Discourse teaches about the reality of sin, the doctrines of grace, faith, the free will of man, eternal life, the Incarnation (God becoming man), the teaching authority of Jesus Christ (proclamation of the Kingdom), the Eucharist, the Resurrection and the Ascension. After each mystery or area of doctrine, a short definition is given, followed by the verses from the Bread of Life Discourse to support the mystery or area of doctrine. Look for verses to support the Church's teaching in these ten (10) areas. Since there are ten (10) areas, the group can be divided into ten (10) groups, each group looking for verses to support one area, or the group may be divided into five (5) groups with each group looking for verses to support two (2) areas.
1. Sin and Original Sin – Sin is “an offense against God as well as a fault against reason, truth and right conscience. Sin is a deliberate thought, word, deed or omission contrary to the eternal law of God.” [2]
Original Sin is,
the sin by which the first human beings disobeyed the commandment of God, choosing to follow their own will rather than God’s will. As a consequence they lost the grace of original holiness, and they became subject to the law of death; sin became universally present in the world. In addition to the personal sin of Adam and Eve, original sin describes the fallen state of human nature which affects every person born into the world, and from which Christ, the “new Adam,” came to redeem us. [3]
“This saying is hard; who can accept it?” (John 6:60); “…the flesh is of no avail” (John 6:63): “…many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him” (John 6:66).
Our human nature is fallen and in need of redemption. The flesh without redemption is of no avail, and our fallen intellect finds it difficult to accept the sayings of Christ. Concupiscence is our tendency to go against God and His Holy Will, and to return and stay in our “former way of life,” a life of sin.
2. Grace – Grace is,
the free and undeserved gift that God gives us to respond to our vocation and become his adopted children. As sanctifying grace, God shares His divine life and friendship with us in a habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that enables the soul to live with God, to act by his love. As actual grace, God gives us the help to conform our lives to his will. Sacramental grace and special graces (charisms, the grace of one’s state in life) are gifts of the Holy Spirit to help us live out our Christian vocation. [4]
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him” (John 6:44). “It is the spirit that gives life” (John 6:63). “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him” (John 6:56). “No one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father” (John 6:65).
The gift of God is freely given, and we respond to this call. We are called not only to accept the divine life but also to remain in the divine life. We can lose the divine life within our soul through mortal sin, and thus we must constantly respond to the grace God is offering, so that we are able to live in the state of grace.
3. Free Will – Free will is,
the power of the will to determine itself and to act of itself, without compulsion from within or coercion from without. It is the faculty of an intelligent being to act or not act, to act this way or another way, and is therefore essentially different from the operations of irrational beings that merely respond to a stimulus and are conditioned by sensory objects. [5]
“Do you also want to leave?” (John 6:67). “Whoever comes to me will never hunger” (John 6:35). “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him” (John 6:56). “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” (John 6:60). “Did I not choose you twelve? Yet is not one of you a devil?” (John 6:70).
An animal acts in response to a stimulus or sensory object. The disciples, who returned to their “former way of life and no longer accompanied him,” (John 6:66) are responding based on their senses. They cannot believe that Jesus will give them His flesh to eat. They are disgusted by this image. Jesus is in no way manipulating them.
In the Eucharist, under the appearance of simple bread, there seems to be little to stimulate our senses. Other than the smells, bells, and solemnity rightly given to Our Lord, the Eucharist is simple. Jesus Christ is present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, under the appearance of bread. Bread alone is simple; its appearance, smell, taste and texture fail to stimulate. Jesus appears in simplicity so that we are free to choose.
He does not desire to manipulate our senses. He even asks us if we “also want to leave” (John 6:67). Our souls are composed of both intellect and will. Our souls and bodies are not separate entities. The soul animates the body, thus it is both soul and body that respond to God. Our soul cannot respond with a “yes,” and simultaneously our body responds with a “no.”
The body and soul together either chose “life” or “death.” “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding to his voice, and holding fast to him” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20).
All things have an end, and two things, life and death, are side-by-side before us, and each man will go to his own place. Just as there are two coinages, one of God and the other of the world, each with its own image, so unbelievers bear the image of this world, and those who have faith with love bear the image of God the Father through Jesus Christ. Unless we are ready through his power to die in the likeness of his passion, his life is not in us. [6]
4. Faith – Faith is,
both a gift of God and a human act by which the believer gives personal adherence to God who invites his response, and freely assents to the whole truth that God has revealed. It is this revelation of God is that which the Church proposes for our belief, and which we profess in the Creed, celebrate in the sacraments, live by right conduct that fulfills the twofold commandment of charity (as specified in the ten commandments), and respond to in our prayer of faith. Faith is both a theological virtue given by God as grace, and an obligation that flows from the first commandment of God. [7]
“Whoever believes in me will never thirst” (John 6:35). “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life” (John 6:40). “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life” (John 6:47). “But there are some of you who do not believe” (John 6:64). “We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:69).
Each of the verses above stresses the action “to believe.” Faith is a gift but also a human action. When we choose to believe, we are obeying the First Commandment. This belief is possible because of the grace, which precedes it. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). Faith is a gift, freely chosen. We are able to choose it because it is first given.
5. Incarnation (Annunciation and Nativity of Our Lord) – The Incarnation is,
the fact that the Son of God assumed human nature and became man in order to accomplish our salvation in that same human nature. Jesus Christ, Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, is both true God and true man, not part God and part man. [8]
“This is the bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:58). “For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:33). “…this is the bread that comes down from heaven...” (John 6:50). “I am the living bread that came down from heaven…” (John 6:51). “Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father…” (John 6:57). “This is the bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:58). “We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:69).
It is clear that Jesus came down from heaven, but that fact in itself does not prove that Jesus is divine. An angel can come down from heaven, and angels are not divine. A fourth century heresy called Arianism denied the divinity of Jesus Christ, saying that He was a good man or maybe even an angel, but not consubstantial with the Father as stated in the Nicene Creed, which we profess in the liturgy. Jesus claims more than just coming down from heaven. He says, the “Father sent me” and “I have life because of the Father” (John 6:57).
The Apostles come to believe and are convinced that Jesus is the Holy One of God. Claims of being sent by the Father or being the Holy One of God give only a hint of His divinity. It is very clear that Jesus is human. He is appearing in the flesh, but how do we know that He is divine? Jesus says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” (John 6:54). No other human can claim that their flesh (humanity) can give eternal life (divinity). Eternal life is divine by nature and can only be given by the divine. Humanity and divinity are united in the one person, Jesus Christ; therefore to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ is to receive the divine.
Jesus says, “The Father and I are one” (John 10:30). In John 14-18, Jesus will continue to speak of the oneness between the Father and the Son. When Saint Philip says, “Show us the Father” Jesus replies, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works” (John 14:9-10).