Jesus the Living Bread Come Down from Heaven

In the book of Genesis we read that the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being (Gen 2:7). Man is a composition of body, mind and spirit. A disturbance in any of the three components is enough to make man restless. However, without the spirit, man is just a corpse.

Truly truly God is the source of our life. It is his spirit within us that gives us life. We can nourish the body with food but what about the food for our soul? Often we can see versions of ourselves as lifeless mechanical bodies – overworked, anxious, baited, enslaved with our plans in the world. In the process we entertain all the worries of our mind and hardly listen to our bodies. Soul food what’s that? There’s no time for that. We end up burning ourselves out, wasting away our mind and body.

The soul cries for nourishment.. it cries for life..In today’s Gospel Jesus says that he is Soul Food. He is the LIVING bread. He is the source of life. If we eat his body and drink his blood we enrich our soul that energizes our mind and body because Jesus dwells within us. In the Gospel of John Chapter 15, Jesus says that he is the true vine and we are his branches. We cannot bear fruit without being connected to him just as the branch does not bear any fruit unless it abides in the vine. Therefore, our life becomes meaningful, purposeful, fruitful when we receive Jesus and abide in him. Without Jesus we will burn out our mind, body and lose our soul.

But we need to receive Jesus in a worthy manner. We need to acknowledge our weaknesses and then receive him with his grace. Receiving the Lord in an unworthy manner is like the grumbling Israelites who ate manna in the desert complained about it and then died.

Let us be reverent, grateful and aware of receiving Jesus alive in our hearts. Let us not stifle him but allow him to spring out his living water within us so that we can truly reflect his joy and gift of life in abundance and life eternal.