So they said to him,

“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?

What can you do?

Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:

He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

So Jesus said to them,

“Amen, amen, I say to you,

it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;

my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven

and gives life to the world.”

So they said to him,

“Sir, give us this bread always.”

Jesus said to them,

“I am the bread of life;

whoever comes to me will never hunger,

and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

We are in the midst of several Sundays in a row where our Gospel readings are taken from the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel. You may recall that we follow a three year cycle of readings which are based upon the three synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. We are in Year B with readings from the Gospel of Mark. As the shortest Gospel, there is room over the course of the year for other Gospel readings. In her wisdom, the church chose the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John to read on these consecutive Sundays. It is known as The Bread of Life Discourse in John’s Gospel. As we heard last week, it begins with the feeding of the five thousand with five barley loaves and two fish. It will continue through the next few weeks with expanded and spiraling exposition and culminate with many of Jesus’s disciples abandoning him and returning to their former way of life because they could not accept his teaching. Jesus will even ask the twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Peter will reply, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life.” I encourage you to break out your Bible and read the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel straight through. It will give you the context for each of these week’s readings. 

Eating and drinking are essential to living. Without food and water, we die. In college at the Air Force Academy, I went through Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape training (SERE). In the survival portion, I sought to overcome my aversion to things that could provide necessary nourishment and hydration. I ate raw ants, crickets, and even the eyeball of a rabbit. I also put my canteen in a stagnant and murky pond, purified it with iodine, and drank lumpy, slimy water. I was training to live. I learned to do whatever it takes. Likewise, to be spiritually alive and not dead, we need something. We need the life of God in us. We need spiritual nourishment. We need bread from heaven that gives life to the world. Jesus is that bread. In eating his flesh and drinking his blood, we receive life, the very life of God in us. Without it, we die. Our spiritual survival, our eternal survival, depends upon the Eucharist. It is the source and summit of our faith. Become a spiritual survivalist! Do whatever it takes to live. Jesus is the bread of life. When we come to him, we will never be hungry. When we believe in him, we will never thirst. When we eat his flesh and drink his blood, we live. Do whatever it takes. Stay alive!