Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 6, 51-58
Jesus said to the Jewish 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.”
The Living Bread
1) Bread. If you look at it, the host says a lot to us. In what sense? In the sense that it is something very simple, it is the blending of wheat flour with water. It is made without yeast, because the yeast would create a determined time limit, but without it, it keeps for a longer time. Today, we can see something like that in our lives. God gives you simplicity and invites you to enjoy life simply and not to linger in time. It is the Holy Spirit who makes that piece of bread become the body of Christ. That is why we kneel when the priest extends his hands and invokes the Holy Spirit. That’s when there is a tremendous change! Today, God can bring about a tremendous change in your life through the Holy Spirit. It’s the Spirit that brings you the holy grace that sanctifies you. Today, through simplicity and unity with the Holy Spirit, you can reach that full transformation.
2) Wine. The symbol of purity and fortitude over the years. That is why for mass we use wine that is natural, without any chemical product. This wine, which is made from grapes that have been trodden, takes days to process. This is similar to the life of a Christian: pressed or marked over the years, to bring out the best of oneself and to achieve an identity that deepens as time goes by. Your experience is unique and over time, you manage to show the world that you can give the best of yourself. You can become pure with the presence of God, filling yourself with Him. That is why, during the consecration, the priest pours two drops of water into the wine in the chalice as a symbol that humanity (the water) sinks in the divinity of God (the wine). Once you put the water into the wine, it’s impossible to take it out again. Because of Jesus, humanity can never again be separated permanently from God. In each mass we ask for this: to be filled with God and to be able to achieve the pure identity of being other “Christs” on earth to others every day.
3) The mystery that gives life. Here, we can see that in every mass, we belong to God, and we are filled with Him in order to give life. You are the strength of the Spirit in your brothers, but for this we must avoid being “spiritually undernourished”. Spiritually malnourished people do not have a closed stomach, they have a closed heart.
Today in mass ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with God to live and give life to others, because Jesus is the Bread of Life.
Remember something good is on the way.
God bless you and be with you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
