|English Message
Pastorais traduzidas para o Inglês
|
ver todos »
|
 |
|
|
|
|
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, witch I will give for the life of the world.
Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink the blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds in his bread live forever.” He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. (John 6:51-59)
The motivation to this dialogue begins when Jesus, from compassion to the crowd that had been listening to him for hours, realizes the need to feed them also materially. He was moved by the attention given to his sermon, but now He felt challenged to satisfy their hunger for bread. Therefore He holds the great bread and fish multiplication feast, and with such a sign He makes it quite clear that the Kingdom of God had come among men. God was present, and as in the desert he had fed and taken care of his people, now as the Messiah, He was feeding again with his Word and the daily bread.
In God’s wisdom there was place for both kinds of food, however Jesus realized that that crowd was now insistently seeking him, is only interested in the bread and the fish. Plenty of free food. Jesus reveals that had already perceived the secret interests behind the false mercy, and scolds his listeners. Feeling attacked, these self-seeking people answer Christ demanding that He show signs of his authority, and try to diminish the impressive miracle of multiplication claiming that Moses had fed the crowd in the desert making bread come down from heaven. Jesus counters them showing that it was not Moses who had made the bread appear, but God. If the glory had to be given to someone, it would certainly not be to Moses, but to God The Father. Beyond that, Jesus finishes his argument stating that in the desert Israel’s tribes had eaten bread from heaven (manna) but even if they had been divinely fed, they died at the end of their days. However, now, God was sending a bread that would allow he who eats it to live forever. The greed of those who were present was lit up and they immediately asked that Jesus give this miraculous “eternal life-giving” bread.
It was what the Lord was expecting to teach definitely, in a way so as not to leave doubts about his mission in the world, and says to shock everyone: I am this bread that came down from heaven, he who feeds on me will live eternally. To enphasize this he reaffirms: For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink, whoever doesn’t eat my body will not have life on himself.
He was not worried if his listeners would be scandalized, but if his message was being understood. The Lord leaves us a clue while saying: “Just as the living Father, so the one who feeds on me will live” We are aware that the communion between Jesus and God was complete enough to be said: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” This is the way Jesus is teaching us how to earn the eternal life, having full communion with Him. To feed on the body and the blood of Jesus is establishing full communion with the Lord, to the point where we can say just as the Apostle Paul: “...and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
Think about this and remake your life purposes.
Rev Vanúzio
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
