Today's Reflection: Jesus, the Bread of Life

A kindergarten class was participating in an action song about popcorn. As the children "popped" all around the classroom, the teacher noticed one boy crouched down motionless on the floor. He refused to pop. When asked why he wasn't, he replied, "I'm burning on the bottom of the pan."

Life feels like that sometimes. All around us, when others are entering into life with exuberance, we feel like that boy: unmoved, hardened and burnt. Happiness eludes us; promises go unfulfilled; our senses are excited but our souls are undernourished. Life seems meaningless and we feel discarded, like burnt popcorn kernels.

Yet Jesus tells us that He is the Living Bread from heaven and whoever eats this bread will live forever. Like Jesus' listeners, do we take these words only at face value and remain confounded? Or can we hear Jesus calling deeply to our spirit, calling us to life?

As believers we feed on the divine life in the person of Christ. We trust in His promise that we will never hunger or thirst. We believe in His resurrection and that we will be raised up on the last day. We find fulfillment in His promise of eternal life. Through the gift of His body and blood, Jesus leads us into the banquet of life. That is the enormity of what Jesus is telling us in today's gospel. Let us partake with joy!

~ Written by Wanda Conway, Living with Christ, August, 2006.

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