John 6:35, 41-51
John's words always use so much imagery. The writer engages the senses, day and night, dark and light, come and see, and this life, I am the bread. This is the bread, Jesus, which gives life. So we need to think of all the senses this entails, the air we breath, the smell of it, the need for touch, our sight, our ears all of these keep us safe and sustain us.
My mother was a bread baker. As kids we would help with making the bread. Kneading the dough, mixing it up, punching it down, and then the smell of it baking, coming out hot and then taking the stick of butter and anointing the tops to make them shine and crispy. Bread is my favorite food because of the memories of this. I don't think of them often, but they are all a part of the love my mom had for us, by baking something and sharing with us how to do this.
We are supposed to share in Christ every time we come into the table. To have life put back into us. How many times do we come to the table with all the thoughts and worries of the week and forget to sense this wonderful gift? Thich Nhat Hahn puts it in another term, to be thankful, grateful we must be fully aware, fully in communion with our food and that we are taking in Jesus' very body to give us life.
Jesus came to teach us this communing with God engages into true life, true living we just have to become aware, mindful of it. Engaging the senses in what we are doing helps us in gratitude for every breath, every touch, every sight, every sound. It takes us into the fullness of Gods mercy and grace and love.
Jesus, in this reading, has patience to keep explaining what being the true bread means and he has patience with us when we come to the table all cluttered in our mind with the week past or the week coming. When we come with less and more mindful of what we are doing and how grateful we are for it, we will be able to see the life we are being given. Taking it in bite by bite.
There is a Psalm which says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." Engage the senses, taste and see, be mindful of the gift of true life you are being given. Taste...see...
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