"I am the Bread of Life"

When we hear the word, hunger, we tend to think of physical aspect of it, but we suffer from many kinds of hunger. The Scripture certainly recognizes this, and it is amazing to see the various kinds of ‘bread’ Jesus offered to people and in order to satisfy their
many hungers.

· To the people who followed him into the desert, and who were starving, he offered ordinary bread, and so satisfied their physical hunger.
· To the leper whose body was falling apart, he offered the only bread that mattered to him - the bread of physical healing.
· To the lonely woman at Jacob's well, he offered the bread of human kindness, and thus satisfied her hunger
for acceptance.
· To sinners he offered the bread of forgiveness, and thus satisfied their hunger for salvation.
· To the rejects and outcasts, by mixing with them and sharing their bread, he offered the bread of companionship, and so satisfied their hunger for self-worthy.
· To the widow of Nain who was burying her only son, and to Martha and Mary who had just buried their brother Lazarus, he offered the bread of compassion, and showed them that even in death we are not beyond the reach of God's help.
· With Zacchaeus, the rich tax collector who had robbed the bread from the tables of the poor, he began by inviting himself to his table. Then, having awakened within him a hunger for a better life, he got him to share his falsely collected money with the poor.
· To the thief who died at his side he offered the bread of reconciliation with God, thus bringing peace to his troubled soul.

Jesus nourishes us in so many ways, but especially in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. The presence of Christ in the Eucharist becomes a problem only when we have lost our sense of his presence in all that is. Those who have a deep sense of the presence of God in the whole of creation, will not have great difficulty in believing that Jesus is TRULY present in a very special way in the Eucharist.
God alone can satisfy all the longings and hungers of our hearts, because he alone can give us the bread of eternal life. This is the bread we receive in the Eucharist. Without it we would not have the strength to follow Christ.

-Fr. John Kim