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The Eucharist is the presence of God embodied in the form of bread and wine. It is the embodied mental food. It is the ensouled physical food. Symbolically, the Eucharist refers to the reality of God’s presence within our body and blood just as God is present within the body and blood of Christ. As the mere bread and wine are consecrated, the church has taught they transform into the body and blood of Christ. This transformation (or transubstantiation) means nothing if those who feed on the Eucharist do not transform themselves. Our cultivation of the presence of God within must align with the virtue of generosity. Generosity of time, presence, compassion, grace, resources, forgiveness, hope, and love.
Here’s the poem to reflect with the gospel lesson: All Bread by Margaret Atwood All bread is made of wood, cow dung, packed brown moss, the bodies of dead animals, the teeth and backbones, what is left after the ravens. This dirt flows through the stems into the grain, into the arm, nine strokes of the axe, skin from a tree, good water which is the first gift, four hours. Live burial under a moist cloth, a silver dish, the row of white famine bellies swollen and taut in the oven, lungfuls of warm breath stopped in the heat from an old sun. Good bread has the salt taste of your hands after nine strokes of the axe, the salt taste of your mouth, it smells of its own small death, of the deaths before and after. Lift these ashes into your mouth, your blood; to know what you devour is to consecrate it, almost. All bread must be broken so it can be shared. Together we eat this earth. The presence of God within is hidden from the eyes that thirst and hunger only for the extraordinary in spiritual life. The breath of God is hidden in our breath. This is the case for those who have known Jesus for a while as the son of Joseph and Mary, or the one who is so ordinary. They cannot accept and apply themselves to the good news of Jesus. They need the eyes of a poet who gazes deeper with a long, loving look. With the breath of God, they shall all be taught by God (John 6:45).
Here’s the poem to reflect with the gospel lesson: A Loaf of Poetry by Naoshi Koriyama you mix the dough of experience with the yeast of inspiration and knead it well with love and pound it with all your might and then leave it until it puffs out big with its own inner force and then knead it again and shape it into a round form and bake it in the oven of your heart To eat is to embody something other than ourselves, to ingest. Food as fuel has two types: physical and mental. Physical food feeds the body, which is fundamental to survival. Mental food, on the other hand, feeds the mind, which is fundamental to identity formation. We feed ourselves with thoughts and feelings. For example, a luxurious clothing advertisement doesn’t just sell clothes. It sells the food of the luxurious and trendy identity that consumers (or mental eaters) can ingest. Some would love to wear or mentally consume Prada to take in toughness as the Devil wears Prada.
One more example that integrates both physical and mental foods is veganism. Vegans physically feed on only plant foods, excluding animal products like eggs, dairy, and honey. But they also mentally feed on values such as kindness and empathy towards all living beings, environmental sustainability, etc. It is not a coincidence that major organized religions such as Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam all have dietary rules in their practices. For instance, in Hinduism, the cow is a sacred animal, associated with various gods. Mental food comes first in this case that one doesn’t want to eat beef physically. In the gospel lesson this morning, Jesus focused on mental food. The crowd among the five thousand who were fed by Jesus follows him. They seek mental and physical food of miracles. We wouldn’t necessarily feed on such food but are constantly consuming different types of mental food every day. YouTube short clips, Instagram, or TikTok videos are not just for fun. These are all mental foods. People constantly feed on information, ideas, and news. Each of these types of mental food impacts our thoughts, emotions, and overall mental and spiritual health. What then is Jesus’ mental dietary advice? Work for “the food that endures for eternal life.” What food is this? Jesus sounds like he is that bread: “I am the bread of life.” Here’s a bit of word twist or something maybe lost in translation. “I am” in his statement is translated from “Ego eimi” in Greek. In St. John’s gospel, this specific use in the lesson refers to God or the tetragrammaton YHWH, meaning “I am who I am” or “the one who is.” Some scholars say this “I am” is to hint at the divine nature of Jesus. Yet what if Jesus is pointing to what the bread of life really is? What if he is saying, “YHWH, the bread of life?” Amy A. taught me our mouth does not touch the lips when YHWH (or Yahweh) is pronounced. It may symbolize the sound of inhaling and exhaling the breath, especially when breathing through the nose only. You hear the sound of your own breathing in and out through the nose. According to Reform Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, it’s not supposed to be pronounced due to its sacred and revered nature but can only be perceived as the sound of the breath. If I imagine Jesus as a practical and cut-to-the-chase kind of teacher, he would certainly model how to work for the bread that doesn’t perish. Picture Jesus breathing in at YH and breathing out at WH through his nose. That breath is still available to us even after two thousand years. Then the food that endures eternity is not to be sought elsewhere and elsewhen but within our body here and now. Work for this food. Bake this food. Feed on the Breath of God. Let breathe and let “Breathe.” Let the Breath of God detox our mental stomach that may be filled with unskillful thoughts and feelings. Let it reform and reframe who we become. |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
April 2025
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