IF ANYONE EATS OF THIS BREAD, HE WILL LIVE FOREVER. (Homily for April 14, 2016. Thursday of the 3RD week of Easter.)


Bible Study: Acts 8, 26 to 40 and John 6, 44 to 51.


As Jesus said in our Gospel passage this morning: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me has eternal life.” To believe in Jesus is to live a different type of life. When you are close to Jesus and strive each day to grow in your faith by obeying his every word as contained in Scripture, you begin to live an extraordinary life; you literally begin to hear voices. Like Philip, when you have Jesus in you, you are able to know and do certain things that are ordinarily impossible for your bare human nature.

There is the saying that you are what you eat. Whatever you consume, that is exactly what you become. If you eat healthy food, you become healthy. If you listen to positive talk, you develop a positive approach to life. If you consume filth or allow the devil to feed your mind with immoral materials, that is also exactly what you become. Jesus is fully aware of this so he proposes a type of food for us that not only secures our physical health but guarantees our eternal life.

When we eat this food, death has no more power over us. “This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” John 6, 50 to 51.

Since whatever we eat, that is what we become, when we receive Holy Communion, we become Jesus. And because Jesus lives forever, death has no more power over him, we too begin to live forever. We need to have faith when approaching the altar to receive communion, to know that is not just bread that we consume but Jesus himself, whole and entire.

This faith matters a lot! In Luke chapter 8, we read of how Jesus was invited to the home of Jarius whose daughter was on the point of dying. As he went, the crowds pressed in on him. So many persons touched him, some even squeezed their bodies with his as he passed but then, there was only one woman who had faith to know the power of that touch. She had suffered from a disease for twelve years and when she came and touched Jesus by the fringe of his clothes, she immediately got her healing. In fact, Jesus had to ask, “who touched me?” At face value, this question did not make sense since the entire crowd were touching and rubbing him. But he knew what he meant. He knew that the faith of the woman had extracted power from him.

This is just how Holy Communion is. A lot of people receive it just because they see others queuing up for it, some think it is wafer, some do not even think what they are receiving, their minds are not even there, some of us have become so used to receiving it every day that we no longer believe it is Jesus himself. Familiarity they say, breeds contempt. Like the crowd, we touch Jesus every day but nothing changes in us. Faith makes all the difference.

Let us Pray:
Lord Jesus, give me the grace to receive you worthily and grant me eternal life. Amen.


God bless you. Good morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you.

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