After taking a single Sunday “off” from John 6, to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption, the Church will return to the Gospel of St. John next Sunday, the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. Pope Francis recently talked about the importance of what is affectionately called “The Bread of Life Discourse” in John 6.
The Holy Father said, “The words of the Gospel are meant to reawaken in us our amazement for the gift of the Eucharist. No one in this world, as much they might love another person, can make themselves become food for them. Yet God did so, and does so, for us. Let us renew our amazement at this. Let us do so as we adore the Bread of Life, because adoration fills life with amazement. Jesus reveals Himself as bread, that is, “the essential,” what is necessary for everyday life. Without Him, nothing works. He is not one bread among many others, but the Bread of Life. In other words, without Him, rather than living, we get by: because He alone nourishes the soul.”
Let us pray. “O God, you became flesh to enter into the reality of this world, to enter into our concrete reality. You came among us in order to enter into our lives. Help us remove the barriers to your presence, help us create a straight path so that we might be all the more blessed by your love, especially as it is poured out in the Eucharist. Through Christ your Son, the Living Bread come down from heaven, who lives and reigns with you forever and ever. Amen.”
