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I Am the Bread of Life
Where We Are
Alleluia! Tuesday of the Third Week of Easter reaches the central declaration of John's Bread of Life discourse. The crowd has been asking Jesus for a sign comparable to the manna Moses gave in the desert. Today, Jesus answers with one of the most profound "I AM" statements in the Gospels. In Acts, Stephen delivers his defense before the Sanhedrin, a sweeping review of salvation history that ends with a devastating indictment. His speech is interrupted, and he becomes the first Christian martyr. The bread of life and the cost of following it stand side by side today.
The Word
In Acts, Stephen recounts the history of Israel from Abraham through Moses, showing how God's people repeatedly resisted the Holy Spirit. "You stiff-necked people!" he cries. They are enraged. But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, gazes into heaven and sees the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. They rush upon him and stone him. As he dies, he prays, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," and then, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them."
In John's Gospel, the crowd demands a sign: "Our fathers ate manna in the desert." Jesus corrects them: it was not Moses who gave them bread from heaven but the Father. "The bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." Jesus declares, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger."
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Reflect
"I am the bread of life." With these words, Jesus makes a claim so audacious that the crowd does not fully grasp it yet. He is not offering bread; he is the bread. He is not providing sustenance; he is sustenance itself.
The crowd's reference to manna is significant. Manna was the miraculous bread God provided to Israel in the desert for forty years. But manna had limitations: it could not be stored (except before the Sabbath), it spoiled overnight, and it sustained physical life only temporarily. Those who ate it eventually died. Jesus offers something categorically different: bread that gives eternal life, bread that satisfies permanently, bread that is a person, not a provision.
This is the heart of Christian faith: not a philosophy, not a moral code, not a set of rituals, but a relationship with a living person who offers himself as food for the journey. The Eucharist is the sacramental expression of this truth. Every time bread is broken at the altar, Jesus's words are fulfilled: "I am the bread of life."
Stephen's martyrdom provides a searing counterpoint. Here is a man who has consumed the bread of life and been transformed by it. His face shines. His final words echo Jesus's own words from the cross: "Father, forgive them" becomes "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." Stephen has so thoroughly taken in the bread of life that he dies the way Jesus died: forgiving his killers.
A young man named Saul watches the stoning, holding the cloaks of those who kill Stephen. Stephen's death will plant a seed in Saul's heart that will eventually blossom on the road to Damascus. The bread of life bears fruit even in death.
Living It
Today, when you eat, pause and remember that Jesus called himself the bread of life. Every meal can be a reminder of his sustaining presence. If you receive the Eucharist this week, approach with fresh attention: this is not simply a ritual but an encounter with the one who said, "Whoever comes to me will never hunger." Consider Stephen's witness: the bread of life gave him the strength to forgive his killers as he died. Where in your life are you being called to forgive someone who has wounded you? The bread of life makes even impossible forgiveness possible.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, you are the bread of life. We come to you hungry, and you offer not just provision but yourself. Satisfy the deepest hunger in our hearts, the hunger that no earthly bread can touch. Give us Stephen's courage to live our faith boldly, and Stephen's grace to forgive those who wound us. As we receive you in the Eucharist, transform us from within, until we, too, reflect your glory. Alleluia. Amen.
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