Today’s Gospel
for the family
Today's Gospel + image + catechesis
Gospel text (Jn 6,41-51):
The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” and they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? (...) Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” and they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. 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.”
Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. 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.”
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Illustration: + Mr. Josep Lluís Martínez i Picañol (Picanyol)
Today we see the listeners' reaction when Jesus Christ has revealed a bit more of his intimacy. How great is God! He has become “bread”, so that we may eat it. He is “alive”! Who is more alive than the eternal God? “He who has come down from heaven”: the “dream of dreams”. We could not ask for more!
—Instead of being happy, they criticize him… Not long before that, Jesus had nourished them with the extraordinary multiplication of loaves and fish: no one argued against that! Now they are! It seems that they only accept “God in pieces”. God,yes; but... from a distance. Odd, isn't it?
