In this section you can find a daily commentary on the Gospel of the Day.

Saturday 2 May 2020

Third Week of Easter

Word for today
The Gospel of John 6:60-69

Indigestible bread

What is so hard and indigestible about Jesus's speech? Jesus offers Himself as the bread of heaven, a new form of energy for the soul, mind, and body. Why is this considered so hard and unacceptable? It is only a proposal, a different possibility, another oportunity.
Why are these words so indigestible that they become in fact 
unacceptable?  Throughout history mankind has  been listening to statements and theories, speeches and words that are even more unacceptable and, nevertheless, we have continued to listen to them for hundreds and thousands of years.
Why are these words so unacceptable and unsustainable as to definitively estrange some of his disciples and followers? What is so hard and unacceptable when Jesus offers Himself as the bread of heaven, food and drink of eternal life?
Balance, that is what it is. 
We have spent millions of years finding our balance, building our systems of civilization, to guarantee for ourselves a fragile form of survival, determining the balance of all the forces and powers at work. We have spent tremendous energies and efforts in wars and destruction to establish boundaries, to order laws, to establish moral systems, to create habits, to teach cultures.
It is simply outrageous and unacceptable that a single man, even if he says he is God, tries to change our balance. It is a matter of acquired and conquered balances.

It is unequivocal and clear, if we accept and believe what Jesus says, I am the living bread that came down from heaven (John 6:51), then all the rest is not living bread, but deadly bread which does not come from heaven, but from somewhere else. If we accept that Jesus is the living bread from heaven, then it goes without saying even without giving it a lot of thought that any other food is mortal and does not come from the Light. It is obvious and, therefore, very hard and unacceptable. If Jesus is the living bread, it means that feeding our children with our culture is not vital, but deadly.
Feeding our minds with philosophical theories, with myths and human
establishments for centuries is not vital, it is not vital at all. It means that our politics and laws that are not based on this truth are the useful tools of injustice and oppression. It means that the science that is not nourished by the knowledge of Jesus brings us not to life but to death.
It is clear that in the light of this perspective, human and mental balances are shattered. The powerful would no longer be entitled to oppress nations, money would no longer have the power to determine all mankind's choices, fear could no longer be used to control and subject people.
It is indeed a hard speech, but only for those who are afraid of losing their balances, and not only those balances related to power. It is a hard speech for all of us
to accept and which we resist  with all our strength  and with a lot of anger inside our mental coffers built by bricks of humiliations, comparisons, other peoples' expectations, tears and solitude.
Jesus' words almost seem like a wind storm that slaps our face, wrists, back and knees while we struggle  to keep our balance on a tight rope.
Jesus' words move horizons, uncover perspectives, guide us to new mental and spiritual balances, but they do it with power and grace which are strange and unsettling to us.
If one listens to Jesus' words and tries to embody them with care and love, one has to change and convert almost everything in his/her daily living, in his/her way of relating, of conceiving reality, of facing problems, of using the earth's energies, of sharing the world's goods.
It is clear that our minds, which already suffer from an overwhelming performance anxiety, and alienated by a constant delirium of omnipotence, can only be shocked by the wonderful opportunity offered by Jesus. Jesus' bread has the power and strength to break and derail social structures, fashions, military systems, cultural frameworks, fake economic balances, political compromises, and at the same time can show new directions and completely unknown opportunities for our lives. Clearly our acrobatic minds, which  accept new balances reluctantly, can not help but consider Jesus' words hard, His offer  incomprehensible, his gift outrageous.
But for the spirit and heart of man, which are never afraid of the opportunity for a new equilibrium, the Master's words are a luminous and extremely economic opportunity bringing benefits to every dimension of human life.