The Bread of Life

WE ARE GROWING AS A COMMUNITY!

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Hi everyone, it is so good to be back. Seriously, when I say that, I mean it! I love these it’s cool because I know there is such a diverse audience out there who are checking this stuff out. I know for a fact that we have some non-Catholic Christians, I know we have some people in the Jewish faith, I know we have people that are of the “Universe” capital U, I know that there are even some people that might be dabbling a little bit in Buddhism. So I find it extraordinarily cool that you guys are all checking this out. I just ask that every time you watch these videos that you have an open mind and hopefully … maybe if something piques your curiosity, you’ll go look into it a little bit more. I think this Gospel might be one of them for you.

So let me get started—got my laptop on my trusty lap here.

Gospel: John 6:24-35

When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they themselves got into boats
and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
And when they found him across the sea they said to him,
“Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered them and said,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
you are looking for me not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.”
So they said to him,
“What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”
Jesus answered and said to them,
“This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”
So they said to him,
“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?
What can you do?
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:
He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”
So Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.”

So they said to him,
“Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them,
“I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

That’s a heavy one. There is a lot going on here. First, Jesus was sent down from the Father. That’s tough for some religions to believe who are not Christians. Why would God demean himself and come on this earth as man and for that matter, there’s other Christian faiths that would look at Catholicism and our belief in ‘the bread of life you will never thirst—you will never hunger.’ and that we truly believe in the Mass, the Host, the Communion wafer is turned into the living God. That is why Mass is so intense and why we are so silent worshiping the Lord, waiting for the Eucharist.

I used to hate Mass. I would rather have a root canal than be in Mass! Seriously and I’ve had a root canal but I don’t think they actually had the medicine working because I felt a lot of that root canal pain and I still would rather have a root canal than go to Mass!

It was the most boring thing ever until I found out what the Mass was all about! How we read the Old Testament, how we read the Psalms, how we praise Jesus and the Gospel and we stand and we’re reverent to the word of the Lord. And then the priest Consecrates the Host in to Jesus, the living God, the bread of life. And that, my friends, is Catholicism. I’m not going to get into a lot of that here because we’ve got a few more weeks coming up of the bread of life discourse.

But here’s the deal. Two things. Check out my blog on the Eucharistic Miracles. This is where the Communion Hosts—that wafer—after it was consecrated into Jesus Christ, turned into FLESH of a heart and coagulated blood … the same blood-type as Jesus’. It was the inside of a heart where you can’t really get to it easily that pumps all the blood to the different arteries.

All of this is documented. Oh, and by the way, they just put it in water and it never disintegrated. Never changed form for hundreds and hundreds of years. Honestly, you should check it out because there’s quite a few Eucharistic miracles and one of them was a priest who was really wondering, “Is this really God that I’m actually turning this piece of bread into?” And then the second one is my Corpus Christi vlog where I referenced the early Church Fathers. And these were the church fathers who were taught by the 12 apostles who were walking around with Jesus or one generation later. And YES, they all believed in the real presence of the Lord in the Eucharist.

I keep saying that I am transformed by the Eucharist. That’s why I go to daily Mass—I can’t get enough. If I could go and receive him 10 times a day—I would—because I feel myself transforming. I’ll go in the morning, I’ll go at noon, I’ll find Mass in the evening. I’ll go in Europe. I will go wherever I am traveling because I feel God in me and transforming me!

But the REAL point is it’s all about eternal life and do you believe in the Lord? Do you believe in Jesus Christ coming down from the Father, the bread of life, for eternal life? Do you believe that He sacrificed himself for our sake, for our redemption?

That is what I want you to really ask yourself this week and if you really believe it. Before I understood Catholicism and in in my depths of my soul believed and had faith, I didn’t receive graces from God.

I did a lot of research. Trust me, I did NOT want to be forced to go to Mass every Sunday. I’d rather sleep in … I did not want to have all these “rules” and in my life—you know, I didn’t want to change my life. I really fought it, but the more I researched the more I found everything to be the truth and the right way, logical. I know there’s mysteries, right? There are some things that you just can’t wrap your head around. Eternal life … God … that a piece of bread can turn into the Lord, the living presence of God … that your sins can be forgiven by a priest in confession. A lot of mysteries—eternity, heaven, hell…HELL! That was when things changed for me when I really asked myself if I die today, which direction am I going?

So the Gospel is all about if you believe in who the Father sent, which is Jesus Christ, the bread of life, increase your faith. Ask him every day, Lord, I believe help my unbelief. I’m just so stinking excited about my faith. I can’t stand it. I really can’t. This is why I want to inspire YOU to enrich your life through faith and prayer. The Catholic faith is really what I’m trying to help you understand because I didn’t understand it and I was raised in it! I think it’s the most misunderstood religion out there.

Alrighty. I’m stopping for now. I could go on forever. As you know. I hope you have a blessed and inspired week. Talk to you next time.

Kendra Von Esh

Kendra Von Esh is a Speaker, Faith Coach, and Author who has a passion to help others to deepen their relationship with God and the Catholic Faith.