We all know that we have 4 Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. However, only John contains the words of Jesus as the bread of life contained in the 6th chapter of that Gospel: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” Perhaps too many of us as Catholics take these words for granted. Perhaps too many of us do not think about what these words really mean, as it is well-known that many Catholics do not believe in the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
However, going back to the beliefs of the Early Church and the beliefs of the followers of Christ after his death and resurrection, the belief in the real presence goes back to those days. Clement of Alexandria wrote this in the second century: “’Eat my flesh,’ [Jesus] says, ‘and drink my blood.’ The Lord supplies us with these intimate nutrients, he delivers over his flesh and pours out his blood, and nothing is lacking for the growth of his children.” Writing in the 4th century, St Cyril of Jerusalem states: “The bread and the wine of the Eucharist before the holy invocation of the adorable Trinity were simple bread and wine, but the invocation having been made, the bread becomes the body of Christ and the wine the blood of Christ.” The belief in the real presence of Christ does not stop with our reception of it. St Ignatius of Antioch from the 1st century called out so-called believers who not only did not regularly receive the Eucharist or devote time to prayer, but who also did not have time to reach to the widow, the orphan, the oppressed, the man in prison, the hungry or the thirsty.
May Jesus the bread of life call out to us today, influencing both our words and our actions.
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