Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: This is Sundays with Bishop Ken.
Thanks for sharing some quiet time with the Lord today. Our guest reader is Fr. Burt Gome, a senior priest from the diocese of Saginaw in Michigan. Father Burt was a priest in the diocese when Bishop Ken was its shepherdess.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: A reading from the holy gospel according to John.
The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven.
And they said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?
Do we not know his father and mother?
Then how can he say I have come down from heaven?
Jesus answered and said to them, stop murmuring among yourselves.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him on the last day.
It is written in the prophets. They shall be all taught by God.
Everyone who listens to my father and learns from him comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the father except the one who was from God. He has seen the Father.
Amen. Amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died.
This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that 1 may eat it and not die.
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 gospel of the Lord in the first four centuries of Christianity, the major controversies were about the identity of Jesus.
Some claimed he was not really the son of God, but rather a good person, specially loved by God.
Councils were hailed, and the church made it clear that Jesus was truly the son of God.
Those words are enshrined in the creed.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only son of God, true God from true God, begotten, not made, and so on.
Toward the end of the first millennium, there were controversies about the Eucharist, specifically whether the bread and wine are the real presence of Jesus or just symbols to remind us of him.
Councils were held, and the church reaffirmed the belief we held from the beginning.
The Eucharist truly is the body and blood, the real presence of Christ.
We heard Jesus teach this truth three times in today's passage.
I am the bread of life.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.
There are controversies today, too.
One of them has to do with the resurrection.
Not only the question about whether Jesus really rose from the dead, but perhaps even more is the question of whether we live on after death as individuals with bodies and a full human life.
Today's gospel addresses that most of all.
Four times in this short space, Jesus speaks of our life after death. Listen to his words.
Stop murmuring among yourselves.
No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up on the last day.
Amen. Amen, I say to you. Whoever believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died.
This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that 1 may eat it and not die.
Whoever eats this bread will live forever.
These are all great and beautiful truths. We need to hear them over and over.
We need to own them, think about them, celebrate them in a way. We can take them for granted instead of taking them to heart.
We can believe in them in so far as we do not deny them, but not really stake our lives on them.
We hold wondrous, great truths.
I want all of us to make these truths part of our lives, to stake our lives on them.
When we do that, they change the way we see life and death.
They brighten a day. Brighten a life. They are good news.
Jesus is the son of God. What he teaches is true.
The Eucharist is truly what we have been taught, the real presence of Jesus Christ.
And there is life after death.
We shall live forever. Live an individual human life forever.
May we hold these truths in our hearts, savor them, relish them, feast on them, taste and see their goodness, and enjoy life more than we ever have before.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us today. If you like this week's reflection, subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.
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Sundays with Bishop Ken is produced by Little Books of the Diocese of Saginaw. For more about little books and great resources for the whole family, visit littlebooks.org dot.
