Into your hands, O lord, I entrust my spirit.
It is the ordinariness of the bread that is so astonishing! Jesus wants to be ordinary for us. "A very precious relic," wrote Meister Eckhart, "is not willingly allowed to be touched to be touched or seen. Therefore He clothed Himself in the cloak of the likeness of bread, just as my bodily food is transformed by my soul, so that no corner of my nature is not united with it . . . . There is not so much as a needle's point that is not united with it. What I ate a fortnight ago is as much one with my soul as what I received in my mother's womb. So it is that whoever receives this food purely becomes as truly one with it as my flesh and blood are one with my soul."
Jesus' patient responses continue to draw us further into the real meaning of the bread from heaven. The manna, as great as it was, was still only a sign of "the real heavenly bread" which the Father gives for the life of the world. With the request, "Sir, give us this bread always," Jesus reveals even more : "I myself am the bread of life." . . . . He has not come simply to give us loaves, but to give us himself.♥
Acts 7:51, 8:1 / Jn 6:35 / Jn 6:30-35
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