In today’s gospel (John 6:41-51) we heard another segment of Jesus’ discourse on the bread of life.  Jesus emphasizes that he himself is THE life-giving bread offered to us by God.  

Over the past couple of Sundays the Old and New Testament readings have provided a contrast between “earthly bread” – the bread offered to Elijah (1 Kings 19:4-8) and the Israelites (Exodus 16 2-15) for physical sustenance in their desert journeying – and the “heavenly bread” offered by God in Jesus – food that sustains us spiritually for the journey that ultimately culminates in eternal life with God in heaven.

Jesus offers us this heavenly bread. He offers us Himself, the self-proclaimed “living bread”.  This is the greatest of gifts and ours for the taking.  As always, Jesus asks that we receive him in faith – not only that we believe that he is present to us in the Eucharist, not only that we acknowledge him as our Savior and the Lord of our lives, but that we also live out our lives in accord with our faith in the way that Jesus commands.  

In today’s second reading (Ephesians 4:30-5:2), St. Paul helps us.  Paul reminds us that true faith demands that we strive to be “imitators of God”, to “live in love as Christ loved”.  Paul helps us understand what this love is about – it is filled with kindness, compassion, and forgiveness, and void of anger, malice and bitterness.  This love must dominate our lives and inform our attitudes and actions.  In fact the call to love is the hallmark of a Christian.  Think about it – Jesus himself said that people would know we are his disciples, by nothing less than the love we have for one another.

So we strive to live out our call to love as God loves. Of course to imitate God’s love is an enormous challenge, certainly not always easy.  But we know that we are not in it alone, that God is there to help us, and that Jesus is present to us to strengthen and sustain us.  Just as Elijah and the Israelites grew despondent and lost heart, it can be the same for us as we deal with life’s struggles and the weight of life’s burdens.  But just as Elijah and the Israelites were strengthened by bread sent from heaven, we can be strengthened, by THE life-giving bread sent from heaven.  We have Jesus, our Savior and our living bread to lift us up and strengthen us as we strive to live out our call to discipleship and a life of love.