Gospel reading for August 4, 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus begins the Bread of Life Discourse, one of many mystical speeches Jesus gives in the Gospel of John, by telling us, “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” Jesus redirects our attention away from the material only. God knows we need food to eat, but that is only to live physically. We need more. We need divine life. Jesus tells us to seek eternal life, which he gives to us as food.

But in the Gospel story, once Jesus tells the people to work for imperishable food, they misunderstand him and ask, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?" They think they have to work for divine food like they work for regular food, that is, by earning it. Nothing we do could ever earn this food. Instead, we are to receive this imperishable food from Jesus by trusting him. Indeed, Jesus replies, "This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent."

By faith, we open ourselves to receive the gift of eternal life. God sent Jesus to give us true life, eternal life. “‘Eternal life,’…in the Gospel, does not speak of immortality or a future life in heaven, but is a metaphor for living now in the unending presence of God. Food that endures for eternal life points to nourishment in the ongoing presence of God” (Gail O'Day, Susan Hylen, Westminster Bible Companion). Eternal life and imperishable food point to abiding in God now.

Thus, Jesus solemnly declares, “‘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.’” Again, the people do not understand Jesus because they demand, “‘Sir, give us this bread always.’” And then Jesus reveals, “‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.’” We are to trust in Jesus who is, himself, the Bread from Heaven.

What does this phrase, “the Bread from Heaven” mean? In Greek it is “ton arton ek tou ouranou.” The two main words are “artos” and “ouranos.” We start with “artos,” which literally means “bread,” “loaf,” or “food.” It refers to God’s sustenance. It symbolizes daily dependence on God: “give us this day our daily bread.” Bread means food for the body as well as the gift of God keeping us in existence moment by moment. As the bread that is Jesus, God gives the divine self freely and without restraint.

“Ouranos” is a Greek word meaning “heaven,” or “sky,” and it signifies transcendence. The ancients understood God’s being God in terms of the sky. For, the sky is everywhere we look yet beyond our grasp. The sky impinges on us, it is the atmosphere or very breath, but towers above us. If you have ever looked out the window on an airplane midflight, you would know the serenity and clarity of the sky. There is not much up there to fixate on. Sure, there are clouds and even storms, but they pass and they are lower to the ground. The heavens, however, always remain above and beyond – untouched by the worst storms and the thickest clouds.

Neither space, nor time, nor existence itself limit God. We are after the God beyond God who is not any particular thing. God is no-thing; God is nothing according to the Christian mystics. This is crucial for us to understand if we want to know God. We cannot know God like we know the things of the world. Just as the heavens or the sky appear non-graspable and every beyond us, God is ever transcendent.

Jesus is the Bread from Heaven who gives the divine mystery, eternal life to those who have faith (to all, but we access it by faith). The Bread from Heaven is the ever-sustaining presence of the God beyond God in our lives and in our hearts. Jesus is this transcendent presence in person.

Jesus will tell us to eat this Bread from Heaven. And to eat the bread is to consume, ingest heaven. It is to take the life of heaven, transcendent reality, into oneself so as to awaken to the very same reality ALREADY PRESENT within and as one’s deepest reality. We progressively identify with Heaven as we remain in the Presence by contemplative prayer and by consuming the bread and wine so that we may be consumed by the mystery.