Bread from Heaven (mid-week)

Bread from Heaven

Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message

July 25, 2018

This coming Sunday’s Gospel reading, John’s version of the feeding of the 5,000, ends with Jesus fleeing to a mountain and leaving his disciples behind.  They get in a boat, and in the stormy night they see “Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat.”  The disciples “were terrified. But he said to them, ‘It is I; do not be afraid.’ Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.”

Note the detail:  they desire to take Jesus into the boat which they are rowing, and then immediately the boat is safe and they reach their destination. 

The idea here is similar to one found in Southern Chinese Buddhism, Chan, the earliest form of what later became Japanese Zen.  In that tradition, enlightenment is seen as something that happens suddenly, triggered by some hidden thing that occurs in the heart and mind.  In Zen, a riddle or nonsense phrase, a gong’an or koan, often causes this, or even incongruous and humorous experiences.  For John’s Gospel, it occurs when we desire to take Jesus into our boat, into our storms on the sea, into our own little enterprises and efforts. 

For John, Jesus is the bread of life, the wine of the world.  To accept the good God intends for us, we must eat such bread.  And like Manna, the bread from heaven, we must eat this bread each day, not hoarding it for the future at all. 

An early Christian hymn by Ephrem of Edessa, writing in Syriac in the fourth century, expresses wonder and reverence at the person of Jesus and his presence in the Eucharistic feast: 

Lord, your robe’s the well from which our healing flows.
Just behind this outer layer hides your power.
Spittle from your mouth creates a miracle of light within its clay.

In your bread there blows what no mouth can devour.
In your wine there smoulders what no lips can drink.
Gale and Blaze in bread and wine: unparalleled the miracle we taste.

Coming down to earth, where human beings die,
God created these anew, like Wide-eyed Ones,
mingling Blaze and Gale and making these the mystic content of their dust.

Did the Seraph’s fingers touch the white-hot coal?
Did the Prophet’s mouth do more than touch the same?
No, they grasped it not and he consumed it not. To us are granted both.

Abram offered body-food to spirit-guests.
Angels swallowed meat. The newest proof of power
is that bodies eat and drink the Fire and Wind provided by our Lord.
                                          (tr. Geoffrey Rowell) 

Hymn 307, “Lord enthroned in Heavenly Glory,” express the idea this way:

 

“Life imparting heavenly Manna,
Smitten Rock with streaming side,
Heaven and earth with loud hosanna
Worship You, the Lamb Who died.
Risen, ascended, glorified!”

Similarly, Hymn 528, “Lord you give the Great Commission,” says:  “Lord, you make the common holy, this my body, this my blood.  Let us all, for earth’s true glory, daily lift life heavenward.” 

Taking Jesus into our boat, whether in heart or in sacrament, gives us eyes to see the truth that we have arrived at the shore and are safe, even with storms raging about us. 

Grace and Peace,

Fr. Tony+