THE LIVING BREAD AND BREAD FOR THE JOURNEY.

In the prophet Elijah of today, we come to understand the function of food for the human person and the aspect of nourishment that it brings to him in furtherance of the human goal which he wishes to attain, and the zeal for its mobilization.
Food is a necessary requirement of all men and women, who want or wishes to sustain the biological and bodily needs of human sustenance and growth. The outlook of workers, from day to day, week to week, month to month and year to year is simply to have food for the table and possibly for other menial purposes.
While Elijah was exhausted from the many persecutions of the prophets of Baal, he gladly delighted that God could take his life from him, as he went into the wilderness and slept.However, God miraculously brought him such kind of food and water that he ate and drank through the ministration of his angels .A second time he repeated his action, as Elijah ate and drank from this food that lay before him from God. This food became in him a kind of living food which was able to strengthen and vigour of a man who was exhausted in life.
In John 6:41-51, we see the complaint of the Jewish people against Jesus of blasphemy that he was the “bread that came down from heaven”. Indeed the truth is always cruel and bitter, but there is no other way to say the truth other than saying it. In the imagery of the one who came down from heaven, they construed him to mean the manna that Yahweh gave them in the wilderness. But in essence, Jesus was truly the one who humbles himself even to accepting the human nature which likened to that of a slave of Phil 2:4-9.
Going further, Jesus says categorically “Your father ate the manna in the desert and they are dead; but this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a man may eat it and not die. The bread Jesus speaks of today is the sacrament and sacrifice of his body and blood confected by the words of consecration. This body and blood of Christ is the spiritual bread that brings nourishment for the soul and the physical body. We cannot say we have the life of Christ if we are not united in the body and blood of Christ. The bread of life is one of the central focuses of the Christian community of Acts 2:46-47.In the same way, we come together always to break this bread, the symbol of our communion.
Just as the food was the energizer for Elijah, the same is the Eucharist for the Christian as it provides the spiritual strength for the Christian vocation and mission. To be in communion with the living bread is the pledge of a future glory and it makes us conscientious of the dangers associated with being away from Jesus Christ who is antidote against death that we should receive sacramentally.Anyone who eats this bread will live forever and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.
At the Emmaus experience (cf Lk 23:7-ff), when Jesus had opened their eyes by the breaking of bread, they were astonished, but immediately they left to proclaim Jesus to others and what they have known of him. In this living bread for the journey. This is why the psalmist of today tells us to “taste and see that the Lord is good”. We cannot experience this Jesus unless we have a one to one encounter with him.