Why are some people drawn to Jesus, so that they leave all things to follow Him? Why are there some who are not attracted to Him and openly oppose Him? It’s pretty clear that Jesus wasn’t everyone’s ‘cup of tea’. There are many who murmur and complain about Him. They just don’t like Him and they certainly don’t like His teaching. In this Sunday’s Gospel, (Jn. 6:35-51) the complaint is about how Jesus sees Himself. His human origins are known to them yet He is saying, ‘I have come down from heaven’. He can’t have it both ways now, can He? He cannot be, at the same time, born of humanity and born from the divine.
Instead of solving this puzzle, Jesus takes the conversation in another direction. He didn’t just say ‘I have come down from Heaven.’ He said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven (v.41) and ‘I am the bread of life.’ (v.35). Jesus is not as interested in His own identity and therefore His authority as those who complain about Him. He underlines instead His mission as the giver of divine life and invites them to eat the bread that satisfies hunger forever.
He challenges his adversaries to give up their complaining stance in life. This only deepens their lack of understanding and fuels their rage. Meanwhile, they are surrounded by people who can illumine their darkness – those who have come to Jesus to receive the ‘bread come down from heaven’. They have come because they already know Jesus’ Abba. The Father has led them to the Beloved Son. They have pondered Gods’ Word. They have learned from it. They are open and ready. Now, as they sit at table with the One who is ‘close to the Fathers’ heart’ (Jn. 1:18) they too are given access to the Fathers’ heart and to His works.
In this context, Jesus powerfully states His central concern. If we eat the bread of life, we enter into all that Jesus is and join Him in His loving relationship to the Father. This is completely different from eating manna in the desert. Although it was given by God, it was earthly food for earthly life. Those who ate it died. Jesus is the living bread; bread that sustains people through death. In fact, this bread is precisely Jesus’ flesh given for the life of a world in which death reigns supreme. Jesus, the bread of life, will enter into and go beyond death. Those who eat this bread of life will die and rise with Him.
So, in answer to the question at the beginning of this reflection, it seems that people are attracted to Jesus and enter into Him because they already know the One who sent Him. In other words, the love of God is already dancing in their hearts! When they see that love, blazing out of Jesus, they move towards it. Like is seeking like. Two fires become one fire.
In ancient spirituality, the love of God was imagined as a fire that pushed up the chest and moved out of the eyes. This allowed a person to see whatever of God was on the outside because they were in touch with the inner fire which was the source of their being. Perhaps this is why Jesus said, ‘If your eye is healthy, it is because your whole body is filled with light.’ (Lk:11,34). But if your eye is bad, it is because your body is filled with darkness. One who is not in touch with the inner light of God cannot see it in the external world. The problem with those who see themselves as ‘religious authorities’ in St. John’s Gospel is filled with irony. They have hardened hearts. Their inner light has been extinguished. They cannot see the light of Christ. Their only remedy is to hang around with people whose hearts have not become a dark landscape. But they will not do that.
We are only searching for God and delighting in Jesus because God has already found us. As Meister Eckhart wrote, “God cannot be found or grasped in the external world. If we seek Him outside, we shall find Him nowhere; if we seek Him within, we shall find Him everywhere. This is not to say that only the inner world is real. Both are real; both have their own measure of importance. But, it is the inner world which has the priority and the greater importance … Having discovered God within, we can discover Him without; but never the other way round.” (The Way of Paradox: Spiritual Life as Taught by Meister Eckhart [New York: Paulist Press, 1987] 51)
