Bread from Heaven

The Holy Eucharist we receive is bread that first came down from Heaven in Moses’ time. The bread God sent down promptly established a bridge between heaven and earth. It was renewed by Jesus, who was Himself the Bread of Life. Why, then, settle for anything less?

In the First Reading (Exod. 16: 2-4, 12-15), Moses finds himself at the crossroads. He has done all he can for his people, risking his life to free them. He answered God’s call, but alas, drew fire from ungrateful Israelites. They began to long for the fleshpots of Egypt, which they had left behind for a higher good – their freedom as a people of God.

But God did not give up on them. He did all that was necessary to show His love. At twilight He gave them flesh, and in the morning bread: at dusk, quails came up and covered the camp, and at dawn, manna, a flake-like thing fine as hoarfrost. Interestingly, manna was meant for a day, thus prefiguring ‘our daily bread’! So, what more could one ask for? The Israelites had food for the body and God’s Word for the soul. Yet, they did not stop muttering in discontent.

In a passage that closely parallels that Old Testament text, we read in the Gospel (Jn 6: 24-35) that the people pursued Jesus. Our Lord knew that they sought Him not for the spiritual bread of His teachings but for the physical bread to satisfy their hunger. Earlier on, He had fed the multitude, and now He’d rather they hungered for the Bread of Life.

The passage of St John the Evangelist, quoted above, is part of the ‘Bread of Life discourse’: Jesus offering His Body and Blood as food and drink. He is the Living Bread, which we now receive in the Holy Eucharist. Many have lived on the Holy Eucharist alone (as seen from the list below).[1]

Can we survive in like manner? Or rather, would we wish to do so? No doubt, it’s perfectly legitimate to enjoy the good things of this earth, including the pleasures of the palate – our senses are attuned to them, aren’t they? However, many mystics and saints had a higher calling and level of perfection. They turned their eyes heavenward for the Bread of Life. And obviously, like them, we ordinary mortals, too, when in a state of grace, are conceded all the merits of the Holy Eucharist.

It is then very important for a Catholic to know what is meant by the Body and Blood of Christ and the spiritual benefits derived. It is literally, not metaphorically, the Body and Blood of Christ that we consume. Some of those who had heard Jesus talk of his Body and Blood were sickened and terrified by the suggestion; they left his company and returned to their old ways.

What about us? Sometimes, we too receive the Eucharist quite routinely, hardly pondering the ineffable mystery.

Today on the feast day of St Jean-Marie Vianney (1786-1859), we may ask: are we actively promoting the most Catholic belief of the Real Presence of God in the Blessed Sacrament? The Patron Saint of Parish Priests, who valued the Transubstantiation taking place at every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, said: ‘Holy Communion and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass are the two most efficacious actions to obtain the conversion of hearts.’

The Holy Mass and Communion thus lend purpose, meaning, and direction to Catholic living. Behold the orderliness and transcendent beauty of the Holy Mass and Communion at Christ’s Table, in stark contrast with sinful orgies and bacchanalia of the past and present. Christ changed it, once and for all, giving the world new life, new hope. There is no looking back.

Those who receive new life in Christ cannot bear to think of relapsing into their former ways. Hence, St Paul in the Second Reading (Eph 4: 17, 20-24) urged his followers to no longer live ‘in the futility of their minds.’ He called upon them to give up their old nature and all that was corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of their minds. And the same applies to us today.

We are a most favoured lot, and ought to  be most thankful for the same. St Thomas Aquinas’ in his hymn ‘Panis Angelicus’ is all praise for the res mirabilis, the miraculous thing, of the bread of angels becoming the bread of men!  Why, then, settle for anything less?

[1] The Italian saints, Franciscan tertiary Angela of Foligno (1248-1309) and mystic Catherine of Siena (1347-1380); Dutch mystic St Lidwina of Holland (1380–1433); Swiss hermit St Nicholas of Flue (1417-1487); Italian friar and mystic St Joseph of Cupertino (1603-1663); Augustinian canoness St Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824); Portuguese mystic and victim soul Alexandrina Maria da Costa (1904-1955); German mystic St Thérèse Neumann (1898-1962), and more recently, the Brazilian laywoman, now Servant of God, Floripes de Jesus (1913-1999)