Over the coming five weeks the Church gives us the "The Bread of Life Discourse" starting this Sunday with the feeding of the five thousand. The readings that the Church gives us day in and day out are always of importance as this is when God speaks to us. When we are baptised the Church does not just give us a book to read, the Church gives us the scriptures, the living word of God. It tells our story in the lives and situations of the people we meet on the pages of the bible.
This word of God over the coming weeks is of great importance, we are all well aware of Preston Guild and the fact that the Christian Community theme for the floats in the procession is the "I am" sayings of Christ. Our parish and the United Reform Church are producing the float "I am the Bread of Life," This word of God could not have come at a better time for us as we prepare for the Guild. As a parish community we are invited to take the time and read the Gospel readings over the coming weeks to discover what this word means to our lives.
You will find daily Mass readings here
Weeks 17-21 John's Gospel Readings
Week Seventeen theme
Jesus gave out as much as was wanted to all who were sitting ready
In today's Gospel who are we like, are we like Philip or Andrew?
Philip imagines nothing can be done to feed some many people. We can be like Philip and think that the challenges that face the Church and impossible to overcome. Or we can be like Andrew and give the Lord the little we have to offer let him work the miracle.
Week Eighteen theme
I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to me will never be hungry; he who believes in me will never thirst
The second part of John's Gospel that we have heard today can be a chance for us to retrieve and reactivate the power of the Liturgy of the Word in our life. It is where Christ gives us the "Bread of Life" in His teaching as well as in the Eucharistic presence. We do not live by material bread alone but by every word that comes from God.
Today we are called to make Christ, the Bread of Life, a priority in our daily lives. Yes, we come to church each Sunday and that is great, but we are challenged this week to make Christ a priority every day,
Week Nineteen theme
"I am the living bread which has come down from heaven"
At every Eucharist we bring the sufferings and problems which weigh us down to the altar and place them in the hands of Jesus. When we do this we are not asking for our trails and struggles to be taken away, but only for the grace and spiritual strength to coupe, persevere and be able to continue on our pilgrim journey.
The Eucharist reminds us that God comes to us through shared fellowship and when we unite ourselves in giving thanks to the father we will be completely satisfied.
We don’t just go to communion as individuals. We share together as a community, and the bread of life that we share challenges us to build up community during the week – to make companionship real in daily life.
"I am the living bread which has come down from heaven"
Today let us bring our particular hunger to the table of the Lord; it is here that Jesus will give us the strength for the journey we have to make.
Week Twenty theme
My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink
“eat my body and drink my blood”
we have grown up with these words; these words are not shocking to us, unlike the people in today’s Gospel.
But today we are invited to look more deeply not only at these words, but to look more deeply into our discipleship.
Where we receive this body and blood is in the Eucharist, this is the place where Jesus greets us.
We are far from worthy, with our faults and failings, we are a people in need of healing and forgiveness. The altar of the Lord is a banquet setting hosted by the Son of God where all of us have a place. It is an unusual gathering of people we only have to look around, people from all walks of life.
If it is like this in this Church think of the world-wide Church across the seven continents Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.
You see it does not matter where you are in the world, when we are invited to gather around the Lord we are all equal. Everywhere in the world today this same word is being proclaimed, everywhere in the world today it is the same body and blood of Christ that everyone will receive.
Every single one of us around the world are on a journey suffering the trails and sufferings of everyday happenings. What better sustenance can we have to support us on that journey than Jesus Christ himself. His body and blood is food for our souls and the spiritual help we need to make us break the chains that bind us to this earth.
Christ not only invites us to take our place at his altar but also wants us to be engaged in building up his kingdom, not only in our lives but in the world in which we live. Having been nourished at the altar of the Lord, we are sent forth into our community to live out what we have been celebrating.
As Christians, our main aim in life is to be so like our saviour that we bring his values into our everyday surroundings. The life that he wants to give us will often demand change just like the Ephesians in our second reading.
He wants change in our conduct and reversal in our standards of behaviour. It my mean reassessing our scale of values, forsaking our foolishness and avoiding sinful habits. We have a long way to go before we reach the idea put before us, but our strength lie in being one with Christ.
The challenge the Eucharist please before us is to reach out to others in our community. Where possible this should take the form of helping people for whom the going is tough.
We may have to comfort a relative in distress or take a special interest in an elderly neighbour living alone.
It may mean becoming more involved and helping out as a volunteer in the local community. We receive the body and blood of Christ , so in return we may be his body in the world.
Week Twenty one
Who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life
Then we have this week’s Gospel which gives reaction to the words eat my flesh and drink my blood. For some who heard Jesus say this it was all too much and they walked away.
Then Jesus turns to his disciples and say’s “what about you, do you want to go away too?” And as we heard peter spoke for himself and the rest of them when he said “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life”
You know yourselves over the last thirty years that this has been a time in history when quite a number of people have been inclined to walk away from the Church, not from the teaching on love, with which nobody quarrels, but perhaps from the teaching on marriage or sexuality or respect for innocent life or on the Churches insistence on the centrality of the Eucharist – the importance of the community Mass.
Some of the people who have drifted away from the Church may be your own family and friends, this maybe causing you great personal worry or pain. We should not presume to pass judgement on any person who is drifting away, or who chooses to walk away from the Church.
You and I have either chosen to stay or chosen to return, well so far anyway. But what will make others return, it may be a personnel crisis, it may be the birth or a child, or a marriage, or a death, or it may be personnel witness that they have seen in you or me.
Whatever it is we as a community need to be ready to welcome them with open arms as Christ welcomes them with open arms.