Please read the Scripture passage before the homily.
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” This means more than we think it does at first sight. Many tend to think of bread of life only in terms of the bread and wine of the Eucharist, the bread and wine that gets changed into the body and blood of Christ. The text, however, speaks of never hungering and never thirsting, terms that relate to both solid and liquid food.
Jesus, the bread of life, has come down from heaven to do the will of the one who sent him. The eating is not only physical; it is also about trust and faith. I understand that newborn infants, by instinct, go to their mother’s milk at birth, in the trust that they have experienced in the mothers who have nurtured and fed them for nine months in the womb. This is the force of the bread of life that is Jesus; it is built in the trust we call faith.
Eating the bread of life is believing in Jesus as the mother who ever nourishes us, as the source of living strongly God’s life, which is for us life eternal. Eating this bread is also welcoming to the table all the baptized and, indeed, all the people of the world. The Catholic’s Amen in receiving communion covers three points of faith: that the bread and wine are the body and blood of Jesus; that the one receiving is likewise the body and blood of Christ; and that we are together in unity with all the human race because all are called into the body of Christ.
Just as the Lord gives himself to us as bread to be broken, so must we give ourselves to others as bread to be broken and eaten. Jesus the bread of life calls all of us to be like him, bread of life for all.