Feed on Jesus, Feed Jesus to others, and Feed with Jesus
I think everyone is familiar with the word: Bethlehem. “Bethlehem” is a contraction of two Hebrew words: be(y)th and lechem. Be(y)th is the genitive form of the Hebrew word for house (bayit). Be(y)th therefore means “of the house.” Lechem means "bread". Be(y)th lechem should therefore be “bread of the house”.
Of course, we know that Bethlehem is the birthplace of Jesus who today in the Gospel makes the bold claim that He is the “Bread of Life”, the “Living Bread” from heaven, infinitely better than the manna which our ancestors ate in the desert. Bethlehem is not the house of that Bread. Jesus is the Bread of that house. In such a case, anyone who belongs to the family of that house will never hunger because the Bread that feeds that household is Jesus Himself whose flesh is for the life of the world. May we always belong to that household.
Jesus identified Himself with bread, with food, for three reasons.
We must always feed on Him. By feeding on Him He becomes part of us and we become parts of Him. The more we feed on Jesus the more we become like Jesus. His life becomes our life and we receive divine and eternal life. Hunger for Jesus is the ultimate hunger that leads to real death.
We must always feed Jesus to others. We give what we receive. We receive Jesus and we give Jesus to others. Let Jesus be our gift to others always. He is the answer to the deepest hunger of our brothers and sisters. To feed on Jesus but not feed Jesus to others is spiritual greed that causes spiritual obesity that leads to real death, too.
We must always feed with Jesus. We feed on Jesus, we feed Jesus to others, and we feed like Jesus. And how does Jesus feeds? He gives us Himself. He feeds us with His own flesh. He laid down His life for us. He is the ultimate life-giver. So, to feed like Jesus, is to give ourselves to others.
Every time we are united in the celebration of the Eucharist, we eat this bread. Let us remember that Jesus feed us. And he expects us to feed Him to others and to feed others like Jesus.
In a practical way, what are the effects of eating this bread from heaven? We eat that bread by absorbing into ourselves the spirit, the truth and integrity, the love and compassion, the generosity and peacefulness of Jesus.
And how do we know we have truly eaten this bread? By the kind of people we become, by the ways in which we behave. The Second Reading (from Ephesians) gives a few examples:
not having grudges against others;
not losing our temper and shouting at people;
not calling people names;
not acting spitefully and getting our own back;
being friendly, approachable, kind, forgiving, especially to strangers and outsiders.
Yes, today, let us taste and see and experience how good the Lord is. Let him be the primary food and nourishment of our lives.
(19th Sunday in Ordinary time B)
