Introduction
My response to this question includes reasons we need "right spirituality", the meaning of the term and how it connects with the fourth gospel and this verse in particular. There is also a summary of an exegetical survey of this verse including historical background of the source community. I have also endeavoured to point out the special significance of this for our present situation and described some areas which would benefit from such a focus.
Text: The Greek
Ego eimi ho artos ho zon ho ek tou ouranou katabas. Ean tis fage ek toutou tou artou zesei eis ton aiona, kai ho artos de on ego doso he sarx mou estin huper tes tou kosmou zoes. 1
The English
I myself am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, (he) will live forever. And the bread that I shall give Is my own flesh for the life of the world.2
Present Needs
As no other time in history, the world today presents us with questions and crises which demand the exercise of the imagination, depthing the reservoir of history and experience and human co-operation on a global scale. As our horizon expands and the parameters change, as we move forward into the exploration of a new consciousness, could we find in the words of John 6:51, the basis for the spiritual resilience and flexibility that the life of this new era demands. The possibilities for the future should generate dynamic impetus for moving forward with due initiative and wholesome change. However, this is paralleled by a negative movement.
A survey of Australian youth conducted by the Australian Catholic Bishops a few years ago showed that in the hearts of young people today, fear is paramount. 3The threat of a future out of their control dominated by the possibility of global conflict and eco-devastation, the vast choices of a pluralistic society together with rapid change in communication, technology and science, lengthy unemployment, the ambiguity of widespread moral relativity, global corporate injustice, increase in reports of violence in society, marriage break-down and family dysfunction, drug abuse, suicide and mental illness, loss of credibility of traditional helping institutions including the church and material pre-occupation and religious apathy, all of these contribute to a sense of futility, alienation and even despair.
Clearly, this fear needs to be replaced by trust and hope in the future, a future which embraces all of humankind. It requires good role models, but especially that experience of a power greater than ourselves, a sense of dependence on a creative, benevolent, guiding higher power which imparts confidence. It is an experience which takes place in or through community. Pope Paul VI, in his homily on the ninth session of Vatican 11, 1965, said , "to know God, one must know the human person." Our journey to God in this life is inextricably bound up with the progress and the problems of humanity and of each individual person with whom we come in contact and how we respond.
The Argument for Hope
A Christian spirituality that characterizes the whole of life lived in Christ can restore trust and hope. I believe a single crucial verse in the Gospel of John, 6:51, holds the key to this spirituality. What we find in the formation of the Gospel of John is a process discerning the sacramental presence of Christ in all of life through a combination of lived experience, prayer and theological analysis. This process is contained in a nutshell in this one verse and reveals a unique spirituality. I would like to continue now unashamedly to promote this as a Christian spirituality and in particular a Catholic spirituality for today, one which is explicable not in any narrow sense but a sense which is truly 'universal'.
Spirituality
The spiritual experience of human transcendence is integral to human life down the ages. However, spirituality as a technical term itself can be traced only as far back as seventeenth century France where it was associated with sects of libertines and enthusiasts.3 From the early to mid twentieth century, in Catholicism, it was taken seriously in the hopes it might make the understanding of theology accessible to and able to be integrated into the life of the ordinary person. It was hoped that confirming spirituality as integral to theology would help repair what C.S.Lewis termed a "dissociation of sensibility"4 on account of which we had witnessed a separation of theology from spirituality and Christian thought from Christian living.
At this point in time, a renewed interest in the study of Patristics is welcome but comes as no surprise. Today extensive research in the area of Patristics reveals an awareness of our need to learn from the church Fathers who combined theological and spiritual scriptural exegesis to convey the gospel in terms relevant for their day and also explored spiritual experience through a biblically elaborated theology.
Just as an awareness of being ‘spirit in the world’5 is clear in Augustine’s prayer in the fourth century, "You have made us for yourself (O God) and our hearts are restless until they rest in you" (Augustine 21) so too in the late first century, the gospel born out of the Johannine community is illuminated by a guiding sense of presence of the Spirit in their community life.
A Spirituality of Communion
While John 6:51 would previously have been interpreted with a pre-conciliar emphasis on the personal and interior life it can also be interpreted in agreement with a post –conciliar emphasis on community. In fact it is basic to a spirituality of communion which recognises in twentieth century humanity and profoundly shares with it the desire for wholeness. This desire is apparent in a breadth of different movements, for example those associated with the formation of Basic Christian Communities such as the Movement for a Better World founded by Fr. Riccardo Lombardi which influenced the program of Vatican 11. Other movements reflect fundamental changes which have taken place since the Council, ecumenical, inter-religious, feminist, liberationist, cross-cultural, interracial, freedom of scholarship and dialogue with the new science and technology.
The spirituality we are defining therefore will be one which is part of the process of our lives, which permeates our lives and which informs theology in its ongoing search for understanding faith in order to worship as a united People of God and to respond authentically to present social and ethical needs.
Exegesis (in summary)
It was the experience of Christ, the Trinity and Grace within the life of an embryonic Church community that generated the spirituality of the Fourth Gospel found in blueprint in 6:51. The following relevant ideas are to be found here: the incarnation of Jesus; the divinity of Christ; the meaning of Eucharist; eternal life; the humanity of Jesus Christ; Christ in his humanity; Jesus’ self-giving; the salvation of the world.To explain this properly requires a thorough exegetical survey which has been completed. Here a brief summary must suffice accompanied by a list of the works consulted from which this argument was drawn.
The gospel as a whole is a complex issue for understanding and interpretation as it was written in such close dialogue with the variety of currents of literary style, cultural expression and faith orientation of the people of its day.
The theological insight we can gain is that in John’s gospel, faith in Jesus Christ means a participation in the eternal life of God and that this faith is a believing into, (pisteuein eis 6:29) an identification with, such that the disciple in union with Jesus and through the presence of the Paraclete, represents Jesus as Jesus represents the Father.6 Word and deed are one. Believing into is a faith which does as Jesus does, as Jesus the Son does as the Father does. Furthermore, this bond of union expressed as an indwelling unites the disciples as one in a bond of love such that in one with Jesus Christ and the Father through the presence of the Paraclete, 7 the disciples share this same indwelling one with the other. This experience of union is a mystical, contemplative dimension of Christianity which in no way detracts from the strong ethical demands paramount in the Synoptic sayings and parables of Jesus, but rather presents the expression of the ideal as a self-giving love through the emphatic Christological statement of the Father’s self-giving epitomized in the image of the Son Jesus. This union in love is held out as a hope for all people and celebrates the inestimable value of humanity for whom the utmost expression of this participation in the divinity, is the communitarian life lived in loving service unto death. It involves union with the Word through faith in the Word, the Word which is ‘bread’ that nourishes, strengthens and satisfies, ‘bread’ which is at once the humanity of Jesus himself, his own body and blood, given for others. This unity is available through the Spirit, the Paraclete who leads to all truth.
This participation in the Divinity, a realised eschatology, while open to all, is limited by a temporal, finite mode of earthly life, where not all choose to enter and disciples encounter hostility from aggressive disbelief. The experience of suffering, dying and rising are repeated experiences within the one life-time. The realised eschatology is co-extensive with a hope in a celebration of complete and final union after final, physical death.
This hope is made clear in 6:51, an important link between two sections of the Discourse on the Bread of Life which is a reflection on the Sign of the Miracle of the Multiplication of the Loaves and the Fishes. The Sign points to Jesus’ revelation of the Father who feeds and nourishes. It contains germinal ideas for the whole gospel. Part of a later addition by the same author, 6:51 contains a deeper Eucharistic imperative.8
The life situation of the Johannine community has a direct bearing on the significance of these ideas and the way they are expressed. The actual text of John’s gospel shows Semitic influences. The simple koine Greek also represents an O.T. solemn style. Generally, the style shows Hellenistic influences but it more strongly Semitic. Judaic homiletic practice and exegesis are reflected in the discourses. Nevertheless, the style is personal to the author whose concern is to convey the message of Jesus Christ the revealer of life. The poetic character and solemnity of style are mostly due to the depth of the author’s mature theological reflection.
There is strong evidence pointing to the possibility of the origin of the discourses being homilies preached in the Johannine community. Such homilies are centred on and generally introduced by traditional sayings of Jesus, and preserve the memory of his teaching in the Synagogue. There is evidence in the gospel of a parallel trajectory within a milieu open to Gnostic influences from the use of certain terminology which has been employed by the Johannine community to express their post Resurrection experience. For the same purpose, they derived concepts and motifs from the O.T. such as the descending and ascending Word of God of Isaiah 51.
The esoteric language that is not ‘real world language’ is largely due to the fact of the increasing hostility to which the Johannine community was subjected firstly within the Synagogue environment and then later, following the expulsion from the Synogogue within a gentile milieu which tended towards being a self-preserving enclave. 9The severely derogatory usage of ‘the Jews’ thereby signifies generally the hostile, destructive powers of unbelief.10 In relation to this argument, 6:51 is not the result of redaction intended to harmonise a Gnostic or Docetic Gospel with the Church creed, but rather is considered to be an interpolation carefully integrated in the Bread of Life Discourse to deepen and emphasise an incarnational Christology.
The singular style of the gospel supports the contention that with a few exceptions, such as Ch 21 and the pericope of the woman caught in adultery, one author is responsible for the whole. This person had access to a Signs source which was adapted and primitive traditional material of the same kind as was available to the Synoptic authors, including a Passion Narrative; belonged to the Johannine community and had communicated closely with the Beloved Disciple before this eye-witness of the Lord died. Of the same heart and mind as this disciple, the author’s homilies were considered to be prophetic in that through the Paraclete, witness to Jesus was an identification that enabled the creation of dramatic situations whereby the traditional sayings of Jesus were further interpreted in a prophetic manner. Probably on the death of the Beloved Disciple and round the same time as the separation from the Synagogue, the oral proclamation came to be written down. A contributing factor could have been the need to produce a written faith document following the delay in the Parousia.
While we identify the author with the title the Evangelist, John, the writings are probably the result of the Johannine Community’s discussion and prophetic insight.We believe John to be a diaspora Jew living in this community initially in Palestine. Some have suggested that ‘John’ could be female. At any rate ‘he’ spoke Greek. The community moved from Palestine during the oral stage of the gospel proclamation and settled in Syria, possibly at Ephesus or Syrian Antioch, although another possibility is somewhere on the Golan Heights nearer to Jamnia. It was after this move that the first edition of the gospel was written, about 95 – 100 a.d. Subsequent editions were completed which introduced other homiletic material, and integrated it into the whole. The introduction of this new material paralleled a development in Christological insight and understanding . Within the gospel there is held in tension inconsistent ideas which are not necessarily mutually exclusive, for example, realised eschatology and future eschatology, and a sense of those who are ‘chosen’ along with a universal mission.
That the fourth gospel is so different from the Synoptics could be explained by the Beloved Disciple having a unique relationship with Jesus and who grasped a different dimension of Jesus’ personality and mission. The Beloved Disciple after death became for the Johannine community symbolic of Christian discipleship. The gospel expresses a mystical dimension involving union and indwelling of the Spirit. It is not, however a call to a spiritualised separation from the world but an invitation to a deeper, more intimate involvement with the world in order to call into faith – into life in the Divinity. The Signs sources which are really primitive aretalogies have been taken over and used in dramatic narrative to express anomolies in the journey in faith whereby misunderstanding gives way to deeper understanding and finally results in clear faith vision.
6:51 follows the misunderstanding occasioned by Jesus’ multiplication of the loaves and fishes. In this verse Jesus himself replaces Moses as mediator in an absolute sense conveyed by ‘Ego eime’ and offers his own human person as food for eternal life. The use of ‘artos’ emphasises God’s bounteous gift and faithful love. Bread, in Greek, artos, a simple word in any language, has an immediate connotation that is wholesome yet basic and ordinary. It is in this simplicity that life in its fullness resides.
We return to Genesis, to the meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek king of Salem (Jerusalem) who worships the one high God and brings bread and wine as an offering. (Gen14:18) Under the Oak of Mamre, Abraham offers bread to Yahweh who appears to him in the form of three standing men. On the night of vigil when Israel left the slavery of the land of Egypt for the freedom the Lord had promised they baked the unleavened dough which they had brought with them. (Ex13:3) On the way to the promised land Yahweh gave them bread from heaven, manna, which looked like white wafers and tasted like honey. (Ex16) The unleavened bread of the Passover celebrated every year for all generations carries in it all this significance of offering and gift, promise and covenant, celebration of continuation of life. Jesus' choice of bread in reference to himself also embodies all these ideas (and more)11. He uses as a vehicle a basic food of everyday life to reveal himself as gift, sacrifice, promise and celebration of continuation of life. As this bread he is identified with the immediate presence of God.
In the Johannine community, the experience of Jesus as ‘presence in absence’ through the gift of the Spirit inspired a need to articulate their faith in Jesus Christ in whom they had formed an intimate communion.12 From the language of diverse religious concepts already in circulation, Judaic images – personified Wisdom and the creative Word of God, traditions of mystical ascent, concepts of angelology, the apocalyptic Son of Man in the Book of Daniel, the Greek Logos, the Gnostic myth of a descending, ascending redeemer, the Essene dualistic concept of light and dark, John drew terminology and concepts to form a uniquely original synthesis expressive of the Christian experience of the Johannine community. The gospel is a developmental formulation of belief within an historical narrative. This message concentrated in 6:51 is at one and the same time the story of Jesus, of the Johannine community and an intimation of the life of faith which extends beyond into space and time.
The ‘living bread’ is Life made available through unity of the word and activity of Jesus because these make manifest truth, a truth which is love incarnate. As the Father sent ‘manna in the wilderness’ so now they are sent ‘living bread’, Jesus, the living Word from heaven. Anyone united to this living Word is promised eternal life. ‘The bread that I will give is my flesh’ proclaims that participation in Jesus is only possible in and through the Spirit upon Jesus’ self-giving in death and resurrection. This life is made manifest in community. For the Christian community, Baptism in faith, through the Spirit grants entry to this relationship. The Eucharist is the Sign which as Sacrament celebrates this union in Christ. To consume the ‘flesh’ of Jesus the ‘living bread’ means taking up his own mission because believing into, that is identification with Jesus as Christ means to die for humanity in order to rise to eternal life.
In the gospel of John, we see in Jesus Christ, not only the fulfillment of Salvation History which has its beginning in the initiative of God before all time, but also, the Divine origin. The Johannine Jesus, 6:51 tells us, is the Christ, the Alpha and the Omega of Revelations. The continuation and extension of the Sacrament in the daily dying and rising is the living out of life in Christ. This unity, in spite of intra-faith diversity was a reality for the Johannine community and is so for the Church in the world today.
Granted that this verse has Eucharistic significance it is closely allied to another Johannine major Eucharistic pericope – the washing of disciples’ feet. (13:1-16 Nestle-Aland) To join in communion with ‘living bread’ is to enter the same life of service to become one of the little ones who like their 'Teacher and Lord' ought to serve in like spirit. Verse 6:51 clearly refers to the whole of life lived in Christ. It is a spirituality of communio, centred in the celebration of Eucharist which identifies itself as being united with Jesus in a life of self-giving service for the sake of the world. It is central to a developing theology that reflects a struggle with opposition and an effort to reconcile the hope-filled and strengthening experience of charity centred in faith in Christ with real threats which are part of the reality of everyday life.
Relevance for Today
It is this life-giving process of a reflective faith lived in community, centred in the Eucharist, drawing on its experience of Christ to inform its theology, open to change and further development for the sake of love for others and the reign of God now and forever, that makes this verse from John’s Gospel a fitting basis for a spirituality relevant for today.
Experienced as everyday reality, 'Whoever eats this bread...(Christ's) flesh for the life of the world' will mean being in a living communion with others through self-giving love. It is this principle which can demonstrate a common bond between secular and religious pursuits. Being religious is not synonymous with being Christian; nor does being secular deny a participation in Christ-like love. Following Christ will always be the antithesis of selfishness and humanity is called and inspired to transcend this negative principle both in the secular and religious spheres. 'Doing God's will' is synonymous with being a follower of Jesus. Spirituality is concerned with an attitude of openness to God's will in all of daily life. Exercise of the prophetic role today means discerning the will of Christ in the world.
The crisis of this transition epoch in the beginning of the twentieth first century anno domini demands a tough spirituality with a keen edge. A spirituality for today must be one which can inform theology and to do so must have that authenticity and authority which is born of the lived gospel experience - the experience of the kind of discipleship which celebrates and proclaims true union with Christ.
If we look around and we can see everywhere a beautiful kind of spirituality in those who are hopeful though crushed by misfortune, in the joyful smile of those who must endure physical suffering, in others' pursuit of forgiveness for those at the hands of whom they have suffered cruelly, in others' self-denying action for justice for oppressed peoples and all the above reflected constantly in a great variety of art forms. It is a spirituality which does not necessarily name itself religious but must be the kind of spirituality of true religion.
Together with negative forces, it demonstrates a polarisation which is most deeply characteristic of this present Zeitgeist. Positive characteristics of the Zeitgeist are counterpoised with other more negative, even sinister elements. On the one hand, certain aspects of the Spirit of the Times can be recognised and celebrated as the movement of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, there are the nihilistic tendencies which isolate and dehumanise, countless life-negating acts constantly driven by hatred and despair.
It is this very polarisation which identifies a times in transition and which we can recognise in Jesus' words, 'Wherever the body is, there the vultures (eagles)'. (Mtt 24:28 Nestle-Aland) In spite of the element of opposition, the Zeitgeist of the third millenium signals the Holy Spirit ever present in creation inspiring and connecting organised religion and humanity in general.
As a global entity we are on the threshold of a new consciousness. It demands of all Christians work and witness for unity, a relentless overt challenging of negative forces in all their myriad expressions and an equally consistent identification and celebration of all positive and inspired activity in the world. Thus we can measure our solidarity with the early Christian martyrs of the times in transition which they endured 2000 years ago.
For Christians, absolutely central to this spirituality is the worshipful acknowledgment of entry into the death and Resurrection of Jesus symbolised in Baptism. For Catholics, the central vehicle for this worship - the summit of its power and the source of its truth is the celebration of the Eucharist. Further, this gives us a sense of human solidarity at the level of worship. If we actively recognised and accepted the intrinsic truth and beauty of other world religions would not our Catholic Eucharistic celebrations better resonate the single-mindedness of Judaism, the peaceful harmony that characterises Tibetan Buddhism, the zeal that characterises Mahommedanism, and the celebration of life in its rich multi-faceted texture which characterizes the Hindu religion and would not members of those religions instinctively feel at home with us.
Listening can be a way of being in solidarity with the full depth of humanity. Aspects of creation which refuse light and life include those who refuse change, a necessary part of life even when the need for it is clearly, even poignantly demonstrated . This aspect of ‘the world’ intrudes into the life of the church and most tragically into its authority and teaching structures. Like some of the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus' own time, some Christian leaders are still crying ‘Beelzebub’ to faithful prophets who filled with his bold spirit proclaim his life-giving Word in terms relevant for today.
The model for evolution in Christ may be seen as both linear and cyclic and can be compared with new scientific models. The union of the eternal Word with creation means we take seriously all human endeavour to come to know ourselves and our place in creation. This demands an interest in the continuing discouveries in the sciences and in particular today, the new Physics with its insights into the origins of life. Included in our spiritual vision, these findings should inform theology and be integrated as part of the gospel message in our teaching to the young.
Apathy towards multitudes of people suffering from mental illness is probably mostly due to fear and ignorance, a darkness we would hope to dispel. The vast numbers of people suffering from mental illness of one form or another suggests this is common to humanity rather than an isolated aberration. We need to come clean and identify this wound in ourselves and others, comfort those who are seriously afflicted and seek out better remedies for them. We need to find ways in Christian community to transform the woundedness of people's lives into an experience and a witness of the transcendent presence of the risen Christ. A sign of Christ’s presence among us is the work already being done on this front by the project PALS which originated in Melbourne and is now into its 10th year and recently has been awarded for progress made by its program of volunteer friendship for those made lonely and isolated by mental illness. The PALS success in the secular arena demonstrates that the action of simply ‘being’ with and for others effects healing. Union with Christ through the Eucharist in a disposition of charity gives the strength to be this kind of person.
Finally, what our Eucharistic communities need is a deep listening to Christ present in the people, a respect for the little ones; we need to introduce ways, including in and through our liturgical celebration, for the theology of ordinary life, the theological reflection of ordinary people to be communicated. The priest's role will be pivotal as one who empowers, and gathers people together and who enables voices to be heard. Thus we would begin to experience the meaning of Catholic Christianity whereby every Christian is a mystic and the spiritual experience of every Christian mystic must jointly contribute to an evolving theology in the service of the reign of God in today's world for the well-being of all.13
Conclusion
To live according to an understanding of the Eucharist as celebration of the whole of life lived in Christ, whereby prayer, reflection on our faith and daily experience are shared in community in order to know God's will and carry it out for the good of all is the spirituality which inspires John 6:51. Our argument has been that this spirituality has the flexibility and resilience to sustain us in our present need and it is available to all who recognise in it the gospel of God's saving love.
Endnotes
1 'The Gospel According to JOHN', in Nestle-Aland GREEK-ENGLISH NEW TESTAMENT, (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellshaft, 1985).
2 Raymond Brown, The Gospel According to John 1 (New York: Doubleday and Company, 1966), cxxxiv.
3G. McLeod, 'Issues and Trends in Spirituality', Review for Religious Vol.46 (1987), 212.
4 S. Schneiders, 'Spirituality and the Academy', in Hanson, B. C. Modern ChristianSpirituality Methodological Historical Essays (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990), 24.
5 S. Schneiders, 'Spirituality and the Academy', 21.
6 Brown, The Community of the Beloved Disciple (New York: Paulist Press, 1979), 467,533.
7 Brown, The Gospel According to John 1, 1136: Parakletos is a Greek word, the meaning being, "one called alongside to help, such as an advocate or a defence attorney." the "forensic function" of the Paraclete would be as a witness speaking through the disciples 'in defence of the absent Jesus. His functions, in John's gospel, include, witness, spokesman, consoler, helper.
8 C.K. Barrett, Essays on John (London:SPCK, 1986), 284.
9 B. Malina, 'The Gospel of John in Sociolinguistic Perspective', Colloquy 48(California: Centre for Hermeneutical Studies, 1985), 42.
10 Dahl, 126.
11 W. Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian Literature (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1979), 11O: This a bread or a loaf of bread. For the Jews it was the most important food. It was also usual to take bread on journeys. Pythagorus pointed out that the 'eis artos' had always served as a symbol of union of bretheren. for the Greeks, sharing the same bread and wine was 'proof of the most intimate communion'. In the gospels of Matthew and Luke, bread is spoken of twelve times and nine times in Mark's gospel. In John's gospel it is mentioned 17 times and 14 of these occur in chapter 6. In Psalm 78:24, echoing Exodus 16:4 the psalmist reminds us that God gave the Israelites 'the wheat from heaven', the 'bread of angels'. and again in 104, 'he satisfied them with bread from heaven'. In the Book of Wisdom 16:20, ' the food of angels' is again mentioned, and this was 'bread already prepared' which God kept 'untiringly sending from heaven'.
12 J. Ashton, Understanding the Fourth Gospel (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 442.
13 S. Schneiders, 'Spirituality and the Academy', 17.
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Bet Green is a sessional staff member within the School of Theology, McAuley Campus.
