Homilies
Bread for the Journey
I was once asked why I felt happier teaching and preaching in church than I did in a classroom. My response was almost immediate – that hopefully, the people in church were there willingly and had chosen to come and listen.
Jesus had pretty much the same issue in today’s Gospel reading. Rather than the public speaking he had been doing to large crowds of anyone who had gathered, this week he is preaching to those he knew already believed and had faith – At the Synagogue in Capernaum.
Jesus knew the Jews believed, he knew they practised their faith, he also knew and understood their faith and he came to show them that he was the fulfilment of their faith. He didn’t try to deny their faith and practices but to enhance them further.
To me this seems a rather standard way of teaching. Start with the basic concepts of an idea and practise, practise, practise until they are embedded and become almost second nature. Once this foundation has been built then you can start to go into deeper and further reasoning that seems to contradict the basics but in fact enhances them.
When the disciples question how difficult his teaching is and say that they can’t accept it, I have some sympathy with them. That’s exactly how I felt about algebra! Some of them had reached a point where they couldn’t get past. They had their foundation. It was built on ritual and repetition and Jesus’ teaching just wasn’t comprehendible to them.
Many of those who had been followers of Jesus began to fall away at this point, to return to the Jewish practices that they knew. Jesus asked his chosen 12 if they wanted to leave also which was when Simon Peter declared for them all that they had believed and had come to know, that Jesus had the words of eternal life and was the Holy One of God.
The thing that struck me about Simon Peter’s words was his question ‘To whom can we go?’ They knew that Jesus had the words of eternal life. They thought they knew what this meant and even if they didn’t fully understand, they were content to put themselves on Jesus’ team.
And this is where we go fully circle again, back to the extension of teaching beyond the basics. Our faith is a journey, an ongoing one that continues to grow. When we think we understand, Jesus challenges us to stretch our faith a little further along our journey with him.
We can help one hurting person – next help some more. We can accept differences from one group of people – now try with a different group. We’ve cautiously committed our lives to Jesus – commit a little more, deeper, harder, more fully.
Jesus knew his message would be hard for us to hear and even harder for us to follow. He gets that, but he doesn’t promise to make it easier for us. What he does do, is promise to be with us. By receiving the bread and wine as his flesh and blood, Jesus abides in us as we do in him. He is our companion for our developing journey.
I think it is a lovely thought of having Jesus as our journey’s companion, for the root of the word companion literally means, having someone to break bread with. It is an old English word, derived from the french compaingon. It is a joining of two Latin Words – com, meaning ‘together with’ and panis meaning ‘bread.’
Each time we share bread with Jesus, we are offered a brief respite, a time to rest and be nourished. To eat with someone, also implies a certain level of comfort with that person and so friendship and generosity are also build up through the experience.
Jesus offers that for us. To be with us, to nourish us, to be someone in which we can place our trust wholeheartedly. – A lifelong companion for our journey.