This coming Sunday is the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, lectionary cycle B. We have been taking a “summer break” from the Gospel of Mark, our normal gospel reading for cycle B, as we explore Chapter 6 of the Gospel of John – the Bread of Life Discourse. This “summer break” began on the 17th Sunday and will conclude on the 21st Sunday. However, this week’s gospel reading is perhaps the most dense in language, theology, and nuance. Not surprisingly, it is the passage for which there is a very wide, diverging understanding.

The posts this week will be dense and perhaps be challenging to follow on a day-by-day basis. But hang in there. As I will try to explain, it is John 6:51-58 which serves as a lynch pin to understanding the whole of John’s theology and meaning of “the bread of life.” As you read the view of scholars on the passage you are likely to notice a group of scholars that hold the passage is only about believing/faith alone in Jesus as the source of eternal life. You will encounter scholars who hold that it is only about the Eucharist without which eternal life is not possible. What is common to both views is that it has to one or the other – either or. It can’t be both. One group holds that the metaphors that are presented before v.51 are immutable and not open to the presentation of a fuller meaning. In other words, Jesus doesn’t expand upon or reveal more about the metaphors. The other group holds that the previous meanings only serve the fuller Eucharistic meaning.

If there is a “take away” from this week of posts, it will be an emphasis on the truly Catholic understanding of “both/and” when it comes to the deep understanding of our faith.

Image credit: The Feeding of the Five Thousand by William Hole (1846-1917) | Edinburgh University Library | PD-US