Jn 6:51-58
[Jesus said to the Jewish crowds]: 51“I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us [his] flesh to eat?” 53Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. 54Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.55For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. 57Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. I believe in the maxim that what matters is not what we eat but what eats us. Jesus’ love and care for all, especially the poor, is what eats his heart. He reaches out to everyone. His Father’s will eats every fiber of his being, and he lives full of trust and faith in his Father. A literal interpretation of the law eats the Pharisees; thus, they advocate obeying it to the letter.
So what eats you and me? What drives and sustains us? These are the things that eat us. A person, they say, can survive with only water for a number of months. But without meaning and inspiration, he is dead long before he loses his breath.
When we see a person suddenly changed, we, Filipinos, ask him, “What have you eaten that made you suddenly so kind?” In the Eucharist, Jesus is offering us food that will eat and transform us.