Word: Jesus the living bread is our way to eternal life.

Order: “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” (Jn 6:27)
Reflection:

Eternal life with Christ consists of union with God himself.  God’s faithful people begin to experience this union even while on earth. This serves as a promise and foretaste of the goodness of life in Christ NOW.

Reflecting on this truth, St. Thomas Aquinas has this to say:  “It is in eternal life that man is first fully united with God.  The union means the perfect fulfilment of desire, for there each blessed soul will have what he longed and hoped for.  All that brings delight will be found in superabundance.  For, if all delights cause desire, here we have the supreme and perfect delight that flows only from God because he is the supreme good.”

Week 1 Eternal life is believing in Jesus as the true bread from heaven

We believe that the bread in the tabernacle is the body of Christ.  Jesus is fully present, not only to remind us of our new covenant but also to welcome us whenever we come to pray.  He comes to deepen our love for him as the Bread of Life who meets our spiritual needs.  Manna sustained the physical needs of the Jews’ in the desert,  but Jesus sustains us unto eternal life through the Bread he provides in the Eucharist.  Just as we take food to nourish our physical bodies, so too, does taking Christ into our life sustaiin our spiritual well-being as he unites himself with us.

Week 2 Eternal life is to live and love as Jesus did

Christ’s commandment of love is simple:  we are to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, with all our minds and with all our strength, and our neighbors as ourselves.  Most of us really want to fulfil this commandment of love, but we are weak and often falter in the face of worldly attachments and life’s challenges.  Our love is a need, His is a gift.  We need to see goodness in ourselves in order to love ourselves and others, whereas God does not love us not so much because we are good, but because God is love.  The foundation of our love should be not so much the will to love God, ourselves and others, but the faith that we are loved by God, regardless of our worth or lack of worth.

God’s love is such a powerful force that no matter how intense the hurt we feel, with God’s love we realize that our spirit need not be destroyed by it.  We know that God will help direct our life and guide us in the right path.  He wants to  show himself to us so that we have no reason to doubt Him.

Week 3 Eternal life is living according to God’s word and will

Jesus is the Bread of Life and he wants to feed us with his abundance.  Saturate your mind with the word of God.  Let the Holy Spirit fill you with life-giving spiritual bread.  Above all, receive Jesus, the Bread of Life, in the Eucharist and have a heavenly feast.  We need spiritual food to satisfy our longing for heaven itself, Jesus offers His body and blood as true food – the food that will bring us to everlasting life.  Our ultimate purpose in life is to trust in God’s word and seek only to do His will.

Week 4  Eternal life is to believe that Jesus is the Holy one of God

Thru Jesus, we can know the Father because God lives wholly in Jesus and Jesus, is wholly in God.  In Him is the fullness of God; He is God himself.  And no one can love as perfectly as God does, for God is love itself.  Jesus is God’s Word to us,  present among us.  He makes the invisible God and God’s infinite qualities visible to us in His person.  Through His sacrifice on the cross, Jesus has made us members of God’s family, children and heirs of God’s kingdom.

The biggest challenge we all face is to let go and let God, and simply receive from Him.  It is never easy to surrender control, but God promises that as we yield our will to His, He will take over and enable us to accomplish things that we otherwise cannot do on our own.  The Holy Spirit wants to show us how much more exciting and fulfilling life can be when we surrender to Him and let Him lead us.  Just remember — the One who is asking for this surrender is Jesus Christ, the Holy One of God.  As the Bread of Life, He is lavish and generous with His love and grace.