“I am the living bread which has come down from Heaven”
The Homiletic Directory, published in Rome earlier this year, contains the following quotation from St John Eudes, which reflects on the “living bread” relationship in chapter six of the Johannine Gospel:
“I ask you to consider that our Lord Jesus Christ is your true head, and that you are one of his members. He belongs to you as the head belongs to its members; all that is his is yours: his spirit, his heart, his body and soul, and all his faculties. You must make use of all these as of your own, to serve, praise, love, and glorify God. You belong to him, as members belong to their head, and so he longs for you to use all that is in you, as if it were his own, for the service and glory of the Father.”
(The feast of St John Eudes is celebrated on 19 August)
The Homiletic Directory also includes some guidance on a prayerful reading and meditation upon this key chapter of the Gospel:
“The next step – meditation – explores what the biblical text says to us. Pope Francis suggests a few simple but penetrating questions that can shape our meditation: ‘Lord, what does this text say to me? What is it about my life that you want me to change by this text? What troubles me about this text? What do I find pleasant in this text? What is it about this word that moves me? What attracts me? Why does it attract me?’” (Evangelii Gaudium 153).
