Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The word Bethlehem means “house of bread.”
After he was born, he was laid out in a manger. A manger is a feeding trough.
This imagery of God providing bread for His people goes back to the book of Genesis with the patriarch Joseph. Joseph was sold to the Gentiles by his brothers and thrown into a dungeon after being falsely accused. After he was released, he was made second in command of the Kingdom of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. God had worked through all the evil perpetrated against Joseph by his brothers and by the Egyptians, not only to benefit them but to benefit the entire world. (In a future article, I will discuss in detail all of the striking ways in which Joseph prefigured Christ.)
Old Testament Joseph
God had told Joseph through the dreams of Pharaoh that there would be a severe famine in the world for seven years. This would, however, follow seven years of plenty. After he was put in charge of Egypt, he ordered that grain be stored up in the years of plenty to be used in the years of famine. Everything came to pass just as Joseph had prophesied. So, when the seven years of famine came, there was enough grain to feed not only Egypt but the entire world.
The story of Joseph in the Old Testament is a remarkable foreshadowing of what Jesus would accomplish. He, too was betrayed to the Gentiles by his Jewish brothers. He, too was falsely accused. And just like Joseph was restored from the dungeon prison and raised to the right hand of Pharaoh, Jesus was restored from the grave and raised to the right hand of God. From that position of authority, like Joseph, Jesus could feed the world.
But with what kind of food does Jesus feed the world? Joseph gave them grain for their physical sustenance, but Jesus had a different kind of food. In the Gospel of John, after feeding the 5000, Jesus said the following:
“Do not work for food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”
When the people inquired about the bread, Jesus said,
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and that bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Now, this was a pretty radical statement. He said that for people to be saved, they must eat his flesh. The Greek word for “eat” in this passage is phago, which simply means “to eat.” When the people started complaining about this, for it was a pretty radical and unusual thing to say, Jesus intensified his meaning:
“Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Jesus intensified his meaning in two ways. First of all, “very truly” in the Greek is “Amen, amen.” This is a double “so be it.” This was used by Jesus in the Gospels when he wanted to emphasize the importance or seriousness of something.
Secondly, the Greek word for “eat” in the above sentence is trogo – different from the word phago in the previous excerpt. Trogo is more to the point. It means to gnaw, munch, crunch, chew, or grind with the teeth. Just in case his hearers might mistake Jesus’s meaning as figurative, he used the word trogo so that there would be no misunderstanding.
Many Lose Their Faith Including Judas
When did Judas lose his faith? Some say it was right before Judas went to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. But truth be told, it was about a year ago in the fishing village of Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee. This was the occasion of the miracle discussed above, the feeding of the 5,000. And, Jesus’ discourse on him being the bread of life that came down from heaven.
After hearing Jesus expound on the necessity of eating his flesh for salvation. The account says that many of his disciples remarked that this was a hard saying and “who could listen to it.” After that, we are told that “many of his disciples drew back and no longer followed him.”
Except for his betrayal and death, the Gospels speak of no other situation in which there was such a mass desertion of his disciples. Jesus did not pander to the crowd to try to get them back, just the opposite. He turned to the remaining disciples and asked if they wanted to leave too! Peter then spoke with the memorable response:
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
-John 6:68-69
Because of the beauty of Peter’s words, we often overlook the following words of Jesus in this same passage which are equally poignant. Listen to these remarkable words:
“But there are some of you that do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not believe, and who it was that would betray him.”
Now this is interesting. Of course, the disciples who deserted him did not believe. That is why they deserted him. But notice how Jesus singles out one in particular who did not believe – one who would betray him, i.e. Judas Iscariot. People often wonder what happened to Judas. Why or when did he lose his faith? He lost his faith at Capernaum about a year before he betrayed him. And why did he lose his faith? The disciples who ceased following him did so because they rejected Jesus’ teaching that salvation required “eating his flesh and drinking his blood.” This was the crisis point for Judas. He could not accept the Eucharistic teaching of Jesus which ultimately led to his eternal perdition.
Peter versus Judas
In Jesus’ discourse in John 6, he lays out the requirement for salvation – eating his flesh and drinking his blood. To illustrate this point, the Gospel writer John includes two examples. First of all, we have Peter who clung to the words of Jesus as the very words of life itself, even though he may have not understood them fully. Tragically, we have the example of Judas who rejected Jesus’ teaching in the Eucharist and as a result “had no life within himself.”
Many Christians view the sacrament of the bread and wine as a blessing. But how many have thought of it as the dividing line among humanity? Does the demarcation distinguish between those who acknowledge and partake in the body and blood of Jesus for salvation and those who don’t?
The Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist is not just another nice doctrine of the Catholic Church, but necessary for salvation. Tragically though, a Pew survey in 2019 stated that the majority of Catholics did not believe that the body of blood of Christ were the actual body and blood of Christ. If true, how do those who suppose to believe in Christ’s real presence in the bread and wine foster such unbelief? This is a topic for another blog post.
So unlike Joseph who gave the people bread for life, Jesus is the bread of life. This was a point of separation for many of Jesus’s disciples. After he made it clear that he was speaking literally, most of them left. Certainly, the Church realized that Jesus did not intend to suggest salvation through cannibalism. It is through the miracle of transubstantiation that the elements of bread and wine become transformed into the body and blood of Christ.
The church borrowed from Aristotle to explain how this could be. Aristotle talked about “substance” and “accidents.” The substance is the essence of something that makes it what it is. It is what makes a dog a dog. Accidents are the changeable elements of a thing—those things that change without altering their essence. For example, when a dog grows old and gets grey hair, it is still a dog.
With the eucharist, the accidents of the bread and wine stay the same while the substance changes.
We now come full circle to the Christmas story. Jesus wasn’t randomly born in Bethlehem, the house of bread. He came to be the world’s bread, placed in a feeding trough intentionally. In our modern world beset by spiritual famine, the only answer that will bring true nourishment to our souls, true satisfaction and fulfillment, is the partaking of the body and blood of Jesus. Everything else, no matter how noble, only leads to more restlessness. People continuously seek solace by running from one thing to another, yet true comfort lies only in the heavenly bread. This is the message of Christmas.
The Only Basis of True Unity
St. Augustine highlighted Christ’s Eucharistic presence and unity through sharing the mystical body and blood, emphasizing their profound connection. Augustine believed sharing the Eucharist’s body and blood created unity among church members, fostering charity and building the church. There are many things in the world that people can unify around, everything from sports teams to national causes. I argue the deepest source of lasting unity is the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Everything else is superficial by comparison.
The Christian Church was unified on this principle until the Reformation. Even though the early reformers stated that the most important question for salvation was one’s view of Communion. They sadly disagreed on the nature of communion. The issue sharply divided the three major reformers, Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli, and they never reached a consensus. With such a divided view on such an important topic, how can there be true unity in the Church? Fortunately, the Catholic Church has always held the view that the elements of Communion are the real body and blood of Christ.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem, 5th century said:
“As two pieces of wax fused together make one, so he who receives Holy Communion is so united with Christ that Christ is in him and he is in Christ.”
St. Ignatius of Antioch, 110 AD, stated:
“Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God…they abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the selfsame flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which that Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes.”
Finally,
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Deo Gratias
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Bibliography:
Feingold, Lawrence, The Eucharist: Mystery of Presence, Sacrifice, and Communion, Emmaus Academic, Steubenville, Ohio, 2018
Lang, Bernhard, Joseph in Egypt, Yale University Press, New Heaven and London, 2009