Believing, Belonging and Becoming through Christ

04/08/2024 Year B Mass Book

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024 Year B

We come together to share a meal and be fed with the bread and wine that is Jesus. The Eucharist is a gift of Jesus' love through which we remember his death and resurrection and share in them.

When Jesus called himself the bread of life, his listeners no doubt thought of Moses. Through Moses God sent down manna, bread from heaven that fed the chosen people for 40 years before they reached the promised land. Jesus explained, “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”.

God prepared us for the mystery of the Eucharist in several ways. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a town whose name means “House of Bread.” His mother laid him in a manger, a feeding trough, a hint that someday he would be bread for the world. All four Gospels tell the story of the miraculous feeding of crowds, which foreshadows what happens at Mass. Even the time Jesus gave us the Eucharist was a clue to its meaning—the time of Passover. At this feast the Jewish people celebrate their salvation from death in Egypt by a meal that includes unleavened bread and wine.

When we partake of the Eucharist, Jesus feeds us with his body and blood. We enter into communion with him and with one another. Unlike other food, which becomes part of us, Jesus in the sacred bread and wine makes us more like him. Therefore we, too, are to be bread for the world.

The living bread sustains us and prepares us for that day when we will come to the heavenly banquet. It is a pledge of future glory. It is how Christ fulfills his promise, “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

“Thank you, Jesus, for giving us your Bread of Life!”