Yesterday, my co-Reverend Deacon, Lemuel, shared a story with me. Once there was a monk who asked their cook, “What do you call a bread with salt? It’s Pan de sal. How about bread with coconut meat inside? It’s Pan de coco. How about a bread with COVID-19? It’s Pan de mic. One more, how about a bread that is full of air? It’s Pan-nuhot.[1]
Nevertheless, the point is that bread has a lot of varieties. So, if you are bread, what kind of bread are you?
Our gospel today talks about Jesus, who identified himself as no other than the Bread of Life. He said that he is the living bread from heaven. He added that whoever eats this bread will live forever. And, the bread He shall give is His flesh, and He will give it for the life of the world.
Indeed, Jesus is the Bread of Life, the Eucharist. Whoever comes to Jesus shall never be hungry. This is the case of Philip in the First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles. He consumed the Word who made flesh, Jesus, and lived the life as His disciple.
In fact, Philip became one of the seven Proto-deacons. He preached the life of Jesus, catechized several communities, and baptized a lot of converts similar to what we have heard in the First Reading. Philip helped the Ethiopian eunuch in understanding the scripture. Then, he told him the Good News of Jesus, which led the Ethiopian to become a follower of Christ. Hence, we can say that Philip is a kind of bread which nourishes other people.
At this time of health crisis, “What kind of bread are you? Are you the kind of bread who energizes people, the one who empowers the medical front liners and the afflicted through appreciation or good vibes?
Or are you a distasteful bread who posts fake news and rants about poor people whom you claimed as stubborn, undisciplined and not worthy for monetary help?
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Or are you the type of bread that is flavorful, the ones who enjoy your family bondings such as doing TikTok as a family?
Or perhaps a spoiled bread who discriminates people from the hospitals?
What kind of bread are you, then?
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us ask for the grace to become a bread that nourishes, energizes, and satisfies the needs of others, especially the most abandoned.
We pray that like Philip, we may help others to understand the will of God in this trying times; that you and I will give the same joy experienced by the Ethiopian eunuch. In other words, we pray that we may become a bread-like Jesus, the Bread of life. Amen.
[1] Panuhot has no English medial term. It is a belief among Cebuano-speaking Filipinos that Panuhot is caused by air trapped in the body particularly in the muscles which causes the formation of nodules. Nodules, then, creates pain and weakness in the body.
Jesus talked about the human conditions of hunger and thirst. However, Jesus was not just talking about the physical hunger and thirst but more than that. These include our emotional and spiritual hunger and thirst which could be for love and affection, for attention and recognition from others, for relationship and intimacy. These can also be our own desire to have power over others, to be in total control of our lives, or to have influence to people around us.
These difficult days brought by COVID-19 Pandemic, we might hunger for company because he have been separated from our loved ones. We might hunger for healing because we are sick. We might hunger for comfort because we are distressed, anxious, afraid and depressed. Thus, our human hunger and thirst could sometimes be unquenchable.
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When we become not aware of our desires, of these hungers and thirsts we have within us, the danger is to submit to these greedy desires that we have. In fact, these desires can be reason why we become possessive of material things and even of people, not wanting to share what we have because we feel insecure. Our heart will also become corrupt because we will tend to gather things and people for our own enrichment. These attitudes will surely blind us from seeing and recognizing other people and their needs because we tend to only see ourselves while trying to satisfy our own hunger and thirst.
Today, we are called by the Lord to humbly recognize our own hunger and thirst that keep us away for others and from God. What are those that keep me selfish and self-serving? When we are able to recognize them, Jesus invites us “to come to him.”
What Jesus said to the Jews, he is also saying to us today, “come to me and you will never be hungry, believe in me and you will never be thirsty.”
Jesus promises us that when we come and believe in him in faith and humility, he will be with us. Jesus assures us of his presence and his company. He said this to us, “I will never reject anyone who comes to me.” The friendship that we shall develop with Jesus will surely bring us into the security of being with God, trusting in his providence and generosity.
Thus, despite whatever hunger and thirst we have now never allow those to prevent us from coming to Jesus, or to hinder us from letting Jesus to fill and satisfy our hearts with his presence. And so with Mary, let us come with confidence to Jesus, who shall never reject, but will even gladly, welcome us. Hinaut pa.
“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?” I find this condition to be so bold and shameless. It is equivalent in asking, “What can you give me? What profit will I gain in believing in you, God?”It is a condition filled with selfishness.
Accordingly, the people who asked this condition to Jesus were very concerned with what they can profit or gain from Jesus. They asked him a sign that they may believe in him, yet, what they were after was actually the works of Jesus that will be beneficial for them. The people were not concerned about who Jesus was, they are not even interested in his person but on what they can get, out from him.
Many times, we have also this kind of attitude. This is an attitude similar to a “linta” (leech), a blood sucking worm. We relate and make friends with others for the sake of getting something from them. Indeed, there might be many of us who would use other people, friends and even family members, to get money from them or any material things. There are also those kind of people who like to make friends because they just want attention and so that they will feel important. People like these only serve themselves and not others. These are forms of selfishness – attitudes that only think and enrich the self and only the self. Thus, we become a parasite that takes advantage of others.
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This is also true in our Christian faith. We might come into a point in our Christian life where we are more concerned with what God can give us, or we might be more focused on the rewards and blessings that we will receive from God. With these motivations in our mind, we tend to become more legalistic in our Christian faith. These motivations will make us people who are preoccupied with what we get from God.
Thus, this will blind us from becoming true Christians. We will miss the whole point of being a Christian too because being Christian is not about what God can give me or what our Church can give me but about a personal relationship with a person, with Jesus. Being a Christian, is first having the knowledge of God in our life that will move us to develop an intimate relationship with God through our prayer life and deeds with one another. Hinaut pa.
The Gospel reminds us today to recognize also the giver of gifts rather than the gifts and blessings only that we receive. We are called then to develop a deeper and personal relationship with God and not to material wealth and possessions to our successes and achievements or titles which will only fade away later in our life.
This is the reminder of Jesus to the Jews when they have failed to recognize him as the Lord and Messiah. The people were only after the bread but not to the person of Jesus. They were looking for him because their stomach were satisfied. Thus, they have failed to know Jesus and to believe in him.
This is what Jesus said to the people, “you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled.” Meaning, the people were merely looking for Jesus because they were more inclined on what they can gain materially from Jesus.
This is an attitude that only goes towards self-satisfaction, an inward looking relationship. The problem then of this attitude is that, the self does not venture towards taking risks or to let the self be challenged. It is rather more concerned of being fed, of being given attention like a baby. However, the self does not want to commit to go beyond comfort, or to go beyond what is familiar. It stays to what is only self-beneficial.
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Hence, having this kind of attitude and fostering this kind of self, prevent us to become who we are called to be by the Lord. As Jesus wants the people to believe in him as the one sent by the Father, Jesus also calls us to believe in him. Believing in Jesus is not just about making the sign of the cross, and saying our memorized prayers. To believe in the Risen Christ is more than that. It is about a relationship.
This is what the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles tells us. Stephen, who was one the chosen deacons to serve the orphans and widows of the Christian Community, was filled with grace and power. He did great wonders and signs among the people. To believe then in the Risen Christ is to be convinced of God’s power that transforms us. Moreover, Stephen’s faith and commitment to the Lord made him confident too in his ministry. This was how he exercised with grace and power because he did not serve himself, he served others.
Consequently, the Jewish leaders at that time hated him. The leaders created stories in order to condemn him. They twisted the truth because they refused to be challenged to go out from their comforts. Those leaders just wanted the community to serve them and to feed their ego.
However, through the person of Stephen, we are reminded that our faith and commitment to the Risen Christ will indeed transform us. This transformation in Jesus gives us grace and power as we allow ourselves to go beyond from our comforts and self-serving egos.
Indeed, Stephen’s friendship with the Lord became his source of strength and confidence in the midst of trials.
This is now the invitation for us today – we are called to build a closer relationship with Jesus, a friendship with Jesus, because faith is basically a relationship founded in a commitment. We do not believe in God just because we want to be treated like babies, feeding us and pampering our egos. This commitment in Jesus then, would hopefully lead us to into self-transformation that gives life to others, that works wonders in the lives of our brothers and sisters.
The very situation we are in now is an opportunity for us to work wonders in the lives of others particularly those who are in great need these days of Enhanced Community Quarantine and Lockdown. May the grace and power of Easter make us more creative and generous too in reaching out to our brothers in sisters
Having this awareness of God’s friendship in our life, this will hopefully bring us also into the assurance of God’s love and faithfulness that even in times of trials, of loss and poverty, of pain and loneliness, of illness and suffering and even death – we will be assured with our relationship with a God who is ever with us, faithfully journeying with us. Hinaut pa.
One of the great Italian painters of the Baroque period is Michaelangelo Mirisi Caravaggio. He is one of the masters of realism and foreshortening technique, and the painting style called chiaroscuro, that uses the contrast of light and darkness to create and bring out the emotion and drama of the whole painting. What you see here is one of his famous painting, Supper at Emmaus. This is the second version of the same theme that Caravaggio painted about the Emmaus story.
SUPPER AT EMMAUS
Most paintings of the Emmaus story, which we heard in the gospel of Luke today, portray Jesus and the two disciples in deep conversation while walking together on a road in a beautiful scenery. But Caravaggio’s take on the Emmaus story focused on the crucial moment of the story. It focused on the very moment when Jesus broke the bread and the eyes of the two disciples were opened in amazed recognition that it is the Lord. Notice the contrast of expressions on the faces of the figures in the composition. The innkeeper and the servant at the back look confused and are oblivious of what is happening, while the two disciples on the foreground were shocked in utter recognition of the Lord’s presence. Caravaggio somehow froze that split-second moment just before Jesus vanished from their sight. Yet the center of interest of the painting is the hand of Jesus and the broken bread. What Caravaggio was trying to tell us was that it was the very act of the breaking of the bread that allowed the disciples to recognize the risen Jesus. Jesus, the bread of life, broken and shared for humanity’s redemption.
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The Emmaus story we have heard in the gospel today is one of the apparition stories of Jesus, eyewitness accounts of the disciples, aside from the empty tomb, that cemented the faith of early Christians that indeed Jesus is risen and alive. We are told that these two disciples of Jesus were on the road going to the village of Emmaus, walking away from Jerusalem. They were sad, grief-stricken, and frustrated, of the events that transpired a few days ago in Jerusalem. Jesus, their hoped-for Messiah, was crucified and now dead.
Then, this “stranger” suddenly appears and joins them in their walk. They did not recognize that it was Jesus perhaps because, like Mary Magdalene, sadness and grief blinded them. Yet Jesus walked along with them, and engaged them in deep conversation about the Messiah in the Scriptures. Out of hospitality, they asked the “stranger” to join and stay with them for it was almost night time. And it was while he was at table with them, that the very act of Jesus in taking, blessing, and breaking the bread, that they recognized Him. It was the risen Lord! And then he vanished from their sight.
Brothers and sisters, the Emmaus story reminds us that in our life journey, in whatever circumstance we are in, Jesus walks along with us. In this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, despite our sadness, fears, frustrations and anxieties, that may blind and numb us, Jesus is there journeying with us. He meets and encounters us where we are. And like the two disciples who acted with hospitality in inviting Jesus with them, despite them not recognizing him, we, too are called to be hospitable to His presence, to invite Him to walk along with us, even though at times we may not recognize Him at the moment.
When the two disciples finally recognized the presence of Jesus through the breaking of the bread, and despite him vanishing from their sight, this brought them such great joy and remembered how their hearts burned when Jesus walked along with them. They left with such haste and returned to Jerusalem to announce that yes, Jesus is risen! It is also the same invitation to all of us my brothers and sisters. That as we celebrate this and every Eucharist, as we witness the taking, blessing, and breaking of the bread, we may also recognize with such great joy the presence of the risen Lord in our lives. Through this act, may our hearts also burn as we remember and look back at the many blessings, moments of grace, glimpses of God’s loving and mysterious presence in our life journey. Yes, all along he was there, walking with us. Encountering us. Journeying with us. But wait, there’s more!
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The Emmaus story also invites us not only to look and recognize Jesus at the breaking of the bread in the Eucharist, but more so to look and recognize him at the many “breakings of the bread” that is happening all around us. Especially at this moment of the COVID pandemic, we see the examples of our front-liners who are risking their lives in order to help stem the spread of this virus. Or the many acts of generosity of people, individuals, local and church groups, who reached out to people in need despite the lockdown and community quarantine, etc. etc. Acts of generosity. Acts of love. Acts that bring hope. Yes, despite Jesus’ physical absence, the very act itself makes Him present. The act of the breaking of the bread in the Emmaus story strengthened the faith and brought hope to the two disciples. We are likewise invited to find strength and hope, as we recognize Jesus in the many “breakings of the bread” happening around us.
It is good to note that archaeologists and Biblical scholars would attest that the location of the village of Emmaus is still disputed and unknown, this somehow tells us, as Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI had said, that the Emmaus story is also our Emmaus story.
Caravaggio’s genius in foreshortening technique found in his paintings, creates an illusion that parts of the figures are coming out of the canvas. This allows and invites the viewer to become part of the whole drama of the painting. As we become part of it, we are also invited to look at our own Emmaus stories. To look back at how Jesus journeyed with us, guided us, and manifested His presence in various and different ways in our lives.
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Like the two disciples who, at the beginning journeyed blinded by grief and fear, went back and announced with great joy their encounter with the risen Lord. We, too are asked to allow the risen Lord to encounter us, in the breaking or the breakings of the bread happening around us, we will become like Peter in our first reading, who boldly proclaimed the Good News of Jesus.
In Caravaggio’s Supper at Emmaus painting, we see that subtle light coming in bringing light to the figure of Jesus and the broken bread. It symbolizes the new light, that transforming light, brought by Jesus upon His disciples. Jesus, the risen Lord, is the light of hope. As our psalms today exhorts, “Keep me safe O God, you are my hope!” And so are we, if we are truly believers of the risen Christ, must also bring the light of hope to others through our actions and deeds. Indeed, it is through our actions that the risen Christ is made present.
And so I leave you my brothers and sisters with this parting question for all of us to reflect upon: In what ways are we encountering Christ today? As Christians, is the risen Christ made present in our actions and deeds especially in these trying times?
May Jesus, the Risen Lord, bless us all. Alleluia!
A DOSE OF GOD TODAY 