Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time B
August 12, 2012

Reading I: 1 Kings 19: 4-8
Responsorial Psalm: 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Reading II: Ephesians 4:30–5:2
Gospel: John 6:41-51


Meanwhile the Jews were complaining to each other about him, because he had said, 'I am the bread that has come down from heaven.'  They were saying, 'Surely this is Jesus son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know. How can he now say: "I have come down from heaven"?

Jesus said in reply to them, 'Stop complaining to each other.  No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise up that person on the last day.  It is written in the prophets: They will all be taught by God; everyone who has listened to the Father, and learnt from him, comes to me.  Not that anybody has seen the Father, except him who has his being from God: he has seen the Father.  In all truth I tell you, everyone who believes has eternal life.

 I am the bread of life.

 Your fathers ate manna in the desert and they are dead;  but this is the bread which comes down from heaven, so that a person may eat it and not die.

 I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will qlive for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.'  (Jerusalem Bible)

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Last week we tried an experiment, a dramatisation of Ch 6 of the gospel according to John. In a comment it was pointed out that we ought not imagine that these dialogues in John's gospel are records of discussions that actually happened. It is agreed that they were written around 100 CE and are "reflections upon what the late first century experience of Jesus in a particular Greek community said to them about the meaning of Jesus." They are "designed to carry profound theological statements."

Keeping this in mind, in the building of further characters into the dramatic structure the attempt is to place myself in the scene as a man in the crowd, hoping to get a feel for the questions first, and then from that perspective to hear the Jesus words and try to depth their meaning.


The Argument we had to have continues from previous Sunday: (LINK)

A group of men, about half a dozen of them, had come out of the town and pushed their way through the crowd spread across the path. They were discussing arrangements for the transport back to Nazareth of goods they had bought in Caphernaum. Nazareth was an out of the way place with a reputation. Nothing terrible, but people said the town had a problem with 'attitude'. Now this group stopped to listen for a few minutes and while we were digesting the rabbi's last claim, one of them said: “Hey! We know that rabbi. Isn't that Jesus, son of Joseph? What's he doing here? We know his dad and mum; we know the whole family. How can he say: 'I have come down from heaven?' ”

I saw Megiddo moving towards this group, ready to do in the rabbi, perhaps, if people from his own town said he was a fraud, but Jesus was too quick for him. He took a few steps forward, and told his fellow townsmen to their face, “Stop grumbling among yourselves.” At close quarters I was struck by his commanding presence, even when he spoke softly. He seemed to know there was no need to bully people into believing in him. Whether they did or whether they didn't was something beyond his control. Then in the same conversational tone he explained,

“No one can come to believe in me and join up with me unless the Father who sent me draws him to me.”

It seemed like an explanation he had to convince himself of, and I wondered whether he had no choice but to be content with the people who volunteered to be his followers. Would he have wanted sometimes to make his own selection! But then he added,

“The person who comes to me I will raise up on the last day.”

This did not sound like an argument for predestination: the Father calls the ones he chooses, and the son bestows the reward for having been selected. Nothing of that. I felt he was looking forward to some final moment which would make this painful time of uncertain choices and fateful decisions seem worthwhile in the end.

He spoke up again so everybody could hear.

“It is written in the prophets:'They will all be taught by God'. Well, everyone who has listened to the Father, all those who have learned what the Father wants to teach to every human being, they will come to me.”

This was another slam dunk that made the head spin. God teaches all of humankind, and anyone who listens well and learns what god teaches grows in understanding until he sees that the right path is to come to this rabbi, this man Jesus! I was just beginning to wonder whether he was talking about some mystical kind of enlightenment, visions and stuff like that, when he added a qualifier:

“Not that anybody has seen the Father except the one who has his being from god: he has seen the Father.” So we ordinary people don't have to start doing weird exercises to find a way to have a vision of god. That's a relief.

He turned then, and took a few steps back into the middle of his group of disciples. They looked uncomfortable too, I must say, and maybe some of them were having trouble swallowing claims of this sort. Then he faced us again, and he seemed to grow in stature as his friends moved away from in front of him. He spoke in a strong voice that carried out across the water.

“In all truth I tell you, everyone who believes has life that goes on for ever.”

And after a pause: “I am the bread of life.”

A longer pause this time, observing the effect of his words on this group of worldly men, businessmen, craftsmen, traders, farmers, not to mention the idealists and the smattering of poets and mystics looking for a spiritual way. I would have given a penny for Benammi's thoughts as he shuffled his feet, looking quizzically at this man from Nazareth making these extraordinary claims. Perhaps the rabbi took advantage of the fact there were no scholars around that day, because he went on to teach a lesson in their style.

“Your fathers ate manna in the desert, but they are dead. This bread that I am talking about is different. It comes from heaven, so a person can eat it and not die.

“I am this living bread that has come down from heaven.

“Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever!”

It rang out like a proclamation. He laid it down as a challenge, like a declaration of war. Believe this if you can! And then, quietly, the final piece of the puzzle, the mystery squared - or multiplied to the nth degree:

“The bread that I am going to give? It is 'my flesh', my own self. I'm going to give up my self, so to give life to the world.”