Our need for the real bread

EVEN if we are told that we do not live by bread alone, (cfr. Mt 4,4) Christ is also concerned about feeding us with bread. This was dramatized in that gospel episode about the multiplication of bread (cfr. Jn 6,1-15). When he saw the large crowd who followed him closely and realized that they must be hungry already, he asked his disciples to feed them. 

 While it’s true that our ultimate need is to eat the very Bread of Life, the one that is Christ himself turned sacramentally into a bread, and the one that gives us eternal life, we are made to understand that neither can we ignore our immediate need for the ordinary bread. 

 We are both body and soul. We cannot be one without the other, although it is our spiritual soul that is more important since that is the very principle of the life proper to us. Still, the needs of the body also have to be met. 

 We just have to make sure that we observe the proper priority regarding these two kinds of bread. We cannot deny that we have the strong tendency to get hooked with one of them at the expense of the other. We tend just to worry about the material bread while practically ignoring the prime importance of the real bread which is the Bread of Life. 

 We, who believe in Christ, of course, know that this Bread of Life is Christ himself who, even if he died and resurrected on the third day and ascended into heaven, continues to be with us with his living presence, offering us the merits of his redemptive work and giving us his very own self as the imperishable food that brings us to our ultimate state—our eternal life in heaven. 

 He does not leave us only with some picture or souvenir or symbol. He is truly and really with us even while he sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven. And he accompanies us in our earthly sojourn, giving us the ultimate means we need to tackle whatever we may encounter in this life. 

 It’s a madness of love to which we have to correspond as best that we could. God himself gives us the grace in abundance to enable us to correspond to that love. We should not be scared of the tremendous prospect before us. But it’s up to us if we choose to love him or not. We should do everything to make use of what God is making available to us. 

 We are told that if we are generous with God, God will even be more generous with us, for he cannot be outdone in generosity. He assures us that whatever little we give to him with our whole heart will yield us a hundredfold. It’s always good to keep this divine assurance in mind. 

 That is why we have always been encouraged to develop and grow in our Eucharistic piety. We are prodded to know and appreciate more deeply the real nature, character and purpose of the Holy Eucharist, studying and assimilating the relevant doctrine, actively participating at Mass, receiving Christ worthily in Holy Communion, paying pious visits to the Blessed Sacrament, etc. 

But we should not stop there. Being the Bread of Life, Christ actually is showing us how to deal with all the situations, issues, challenges and trials that we can encounter in life. And we have to be quick to discern his will and ways.