2623AFC060526 – The Bread That IS Given
Read it online here, please. We now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often. And please, when you visit there, use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post.
Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Please forward this to them and ask them also to share it to others.
John 6:51, 54-57 – 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; 55 for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.
Deuteronomy 8:14-16 (GNT) [1] – […] 14 be sure that you do not become proud and forget the Lord your God who rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. 15 He led you through that vast and terrifying desert where there were poisonous snakes and scorpions. In that dry and waterless land he made water flow out of solid rock for you. 16 In the desert he gave you manna to eat, food that your ancestors had never eaten. He sent hardships on you to test you, so that in the end he could bless you with good things.
1 Corinthians 10:16-17 – 16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
Psalm 147:14
14 He grants peace [& prosperity ]within your borders;
he fills you with the finest of wheat.
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. this weekend we celebrate the third and final Solemnity After Easter (with a very long name) – The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ – or Corpus Christi on some calendars. This is one of those tenets of faith that many people struggle with – Catholics and non-Catholics alike. That difficulty goes way back. Let’s look at what this Solemnity celebrates. I’m going to “borrow” something from last year – 2525AFC062025
On this day we remember that Christ told his Disciples, and us as well, that he is the Bread of Life come down from Heaven which was followed by the statement for my flesh is TRUE food and my blood is TRUE drink. (Please read carefully John 6:53-59) Jesus is in the Father, the Father is in Jesus, the Father and the Son live in the Unity / Communion / Fellowship (Fellowship is translated from “koinonia” as κοινωνία) of the Holy Spirit, and the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are in those who believe. We hear this in every Mass, the Great Doxology.”
Through him, and with him, and in him,
O God, almighty Father,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
all glory and honor is yours,
for ever and ever. AMEN
St. Thomas Aquinas once wrote: “Material food first of all turns itself into the person who eats it, and as a consequence, restores his losses and increases his vital energies. Spiritual food, on the other hand, turns the person who eats it into Itself, and thus the proper effect of this sacrament is the conversion of man into Christ, so that he may no longer live for himself, but that Christ may live in Him. And as a consequence it has the double effect of restoring the spiritual losses caused by sins and defects and of increasing the power of the virtues.”
Yes, we believe it truly is Jesus Christ who is present in the Eucharist; we believe His true Presence begins from the instant of the consecration and then endures so long as the sacramental species are discernible. St. Augustine’s assertion hold true – Material food becomes us – it is absorbed into our bodies for nutrition. With Spiritual food, we become it. In that belief, we become what we eat – Wholly Holy. Perfect? No, we are not perfect or perfected. We are made WHOLE which is what holiness is. Christ is present, Christ is offered, and Christ offers the Offering. When we accept the Gift that is offered, we accept the Presence in the Gift.
We refer to this offering as an oblation. This is a solemn Gifting of Christ’s sacrifice and ours as we look upon the True Presence with eyes enlightened by faith. (See Ephesians 1:17-19 for opening the eyes of our hearts (↔ Music Link). An Oblation is a “meal” (grain) offering. It is the most fundamental of all offerings. In the Old Testament it is often called a “gift offering,” and the noun used in Hebrew is מִנְחָה (minkhah) {min-khah’}. During every Eucharistic Prayer there are two Oblations. The “lesser oblation” is the Offertory – this happens before the Consecration – in which the bread and wine are presented to God. During this Offertory, the Priest holds both hands over the Gifts on the Altar and blesses them in and through the Holy Spirit. The “greater oblation,” the Oblation Proper, occurs after the consecration when the Priest, on behalf of Christ, offers God the Precious Body and Blood of Jesus as Jesus himself offers himself to his Father on our behalf. It is a truly amazing moment many people often miss, the opportunity to be an active participant in The Fellowship of The Bread and the Chalice.
We see the Bread and Chalice when it is offered. We see the Bread when it is consecrated. We see the Bread – now properly the True Presence of the Body of Christ – when is broken and elevated with the Chalice of Salvation which now contains the Precious Blood of Christ. We see the Bread – but know it is the Body – when it is given for consumption. We become the Bread of Life when we eat and drink the Body and Blood of Christ as he commanded. In all of these instances after the consecration, if we see with the eyes of our hearts, we see The Precious Body and Blood of Christ – not just bread and wine. (↔ Music Link)
Jesus is the Bread from Heaven, the Bread of Life, The Living Bread, and that Bread was blessed and broken for us. (See also John 6:22-59 – The Bread of Life Discourse. Every Christian, Catholic or non-Catholic, should read this passage often) Bread is the staff of life, and eating bread is a necessary action of living. Traditionally, bread – as the staff of life – was broken before eating it; it was not cut because, symbolically, that would be slicing Life itself. With that in mind, there is a new layer of context in Acts 2:42 – 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. These are spiritual acts – sacred moments devoted to God. The Apostle Paul reminded the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 10:16 – 16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?
And so we remember, we celebrate, we Believe (↔ Music Link) – hopefully with deep belief and understanding – that we are living out exactly what The Apostle Paul wrote to the Church in Corinth. That belief is rooted in Scripture, in Apostolic Tradition, and confirmed through centuries of the Teaching Authority of the Church. Over 2000 years of belief in what is given to us originally through the Apostles, and Church Fathers in the Fifth Century, the passage in John 6:53-55 – 53 So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; 55 for my flesh is TRUE food and my blood is TRUE drink.” In this passage, the Greek word for TRUE is aléthés. This word means TRUE to fact (227 /alēthḗs, “true to fact”) – the exact opposite of illusion (i.e., merely symbolic) and denotatively REALITY. In this manner we confirm the inerrancy of Scripture. It is the Gift of Bread that IS given, but we have to believe it to receive it. Jesus said it. I believe it. That’s the TRUTH, and I am glad we all know it. And, dear reader, if you still cannot believe that is possible, I give you Luke 1:37 – 37 For nothing will be impossible with God. That’s why we also remember
AND
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
Please pray with us hereat Share-a-Prayer.
John 6:51 – 51 “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition(NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
