The First Leap

by Keith Amodia

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 6:24-35.

When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they themselves got into boats
and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
And when they found him across the sea they said to him,
“Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered them and said,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
you are looking for me not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.”
So they said to him,
“What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”
Jesus answered and said to them,
“This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”
So they said to him,
“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?
What can you do?
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:
He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”
So Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.”

So they said to him,
“Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them,
“I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

—

Reflection

For most of us, we would not believe until we see it for ourselves. The people who saw Jesus multiply bread were looking for Him because they saw that He could do wonders. Jesus had to point out to them the purpose of those wonders. Jesus had to remind them that His purpose is much higher than feeding people and establishing a utopian society. Jesus came to share with us the fullness of life.

Christianity is all about entering into that fullness of life. Such is the work of God, to bring His children into His Life. But to achieve that fullness one must make the first leap – the leap of faith. This episode of the Gospel reminds all Christians of the fundamental requirement of their faith – the belief in Jesus as the Bread of Life, who came from the Father in order to feed us His very own Life. To be Christian means to believe that Jesus did come down from heaven from the Father, in order to unite Himself more fully with humanity by giving them His own Life.

As Catholics, we celebrate this in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. The Sacrament is our celebration of Jesus’ own promise of the Bread of Life. Ours is not only taking in His teachings but most of all, that communion with Him in the most physical, most profound, and most human way – taking Him as our Bread from heaven, His Body and Blood, in the form of bread and wine. Our Catholic life takes its vitality from this first leap of faith.

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