Eat the Bread of Life

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 6:51-58. 

Jesus said to the crowds: 
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." 
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?" 
Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. 
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. 
Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. 
This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever." 

Reflection:

Jesus is not a magician. We cannot literally interpret the gospel of today. We must bear in our mind that what Jesus tells us here is figurative. How can we eat the flesh of Jesus? We are not allowed to eat human flesh. Besides, if we will literally understand it as human flesh, Jesus' flesh couldn't be enough for all of us in order to be saved. Another point to ponder here is that the flesh of Jesus is compared to a bread. Jesus told us that his flesh is a bread of life that came down from heaven. He promised us that when we eat this bread we will not die and we will live forever. Jesus puts this into action when he did it during the last supper with his disciples. He even emphasized that we have to do this in his memory, hence, the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Therefore, once we will celebrate the Holy Eucharist we have done what Jesus told us to do to remember Him. This is the strong basis of celebrating the Eucharist and eating the bread of life during Sunday masses. Death that Jesus mentioned in this gospel means is not physical but spiritual. When you eat the bread of life every Sunday eucharist you will be spiritually live forever.