From my very earliest years, until just three or four years before my mom's death, the most intoxicating aroma that I have ever known came from my mom's kitchen. It was the aroma of bread baking in the oven. I was the third oldest in a family with nine children. So a lot of the special things that mom did, like baking bread, for instance, started out of economic necessity. With so many mouths to feed it, was much less expensive to bake bread than to buy it at the grocery store. But over the years, as mom and dad became more financially secure, she continued to bake bread from scratch. It was no longer an economic necessity, it was because mom knew that it had become such a special treat for all of us. Baking bread was a tangible sign of mom's love for her family.

When I was very young, Mom used to start the bread-baking process the night before. She would combine some of the ingredients and set things out so she could get an early start the next day. She kneaded the dough and then let it rise. She would often wait to start the baking until a little later in the day. She would time her baking to make sure that the last few loaves that came out of the oven were coming out just as my brothers 1 and I were walking through the door after school. And then we would fight and beg to get that first slice of the loaf, piping hot. And then we added to the slice as much butter as that warm bread could possibly melt. When we bit into it, it became a mess as the butter came all over our face and our hands, and it ran all over the table in front of us. It was a treat that all of us remember fondly to this very day.

So why am I focusing on bread? Well, last Sunday we began a part of the Gospel of John that is called the Bread of Life discourse. This is the Gospel in which Jesus defines who He is in very direct and clear language. He states emphatically and repeatedly that He is the Bread of Life. This thesis extends through the Gospel this Sunday and next Sunday, as well. And it is one of the most essential parts of our Christian faith. In fact, it is so essential that it has been the cause of great discussion and, unfortunately, dissension and division over the life of the Church. The meaning of the Bread of Life discourse has been debated and dissected ad nauseum. And the interpretation of what Jesus' words in the Gospel really meant are still the cause of division within the Body of Christ.

Some choose to view the word symbolically. Jesus could not have really meant that our salvation hinges on 2 literally eating his flesh and drinking his blood, could he? Some claim that Jesus' words "eat and drink" mean only that we are to believe in the flesh of Jesus given for our salvation on the cross. And then the debate begins about the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist. To some, Eucharist is just a symbolic meal to commemorate the Last Supper. To others, Jesus is present in the Eucharist but the bread and wine don't really change. This is called consubstantiation. What the Church teaches and what we believe is called transubstantiation, that the bread and wine, although retaining the appearances of bread and wine, truly become the Body and Blood of Our Lord.

So what are we to make of all this? Well, all of the high theological debating should be left to the theologians. But for me, a simple deacon, the teaching of the Church is clear and unambiguous. Jesus Christ is present in the Eucharist. And when we receive Holy Communion, we are partaking of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord.

So with all that being said, let me return to the topic of bread. What is bread and what does it mean to be fed? Bread is an essential ingredient of most diets. And, likewise, it is a recurring theme that comes up in all the Scriptures. When the Israelites grumbled about 3 their hunger, God rained down manna in the desert to satisfy them. In today's reading from the First Book of Kings, Elijah is asking God for death, and God instead feeds him with bread to fuel the rest of his mission.

When Jesus spent 40 days in the desert, Satan tried to tempt him by daring him to turn stones into bread to satisfy his hunger. In the Gospel two weeks ago, Jesus fed 5,000 with just five loaves of bread. And today, Jesus repeats what He said last week in the Gospel, that He is the Bread of Life. And then He says that whoever eats this bread will live forever.

Now, while every theological concept can be studied and debated, I think it's pretty obvious that bread is symbolic. It is the symbol of God's perpetual love and care for His children. When the Israelites were wandering in the desert, Yahweh wanted them to know that it was He who freed them from slavery in Egypt, and it was Yahweh who would provide for them the food they needed for their journey to the promised land. When Elijah asked for death instead of having to continue on his mission, God gave him food to fuel his 40-day journey to Mt. Horeb. In either of these cases, as well as in others, the bread that is sent down from heaven, the bread that sustains the Israelites and the prophets, points to the bread that God will ultimately send to 4 sustain us on our journey. It is the symbol that points to the true Bread of Life, and that living bread is Jesus Himself. It is Jesus in the Holy Eucharist who sustains us and builds us up for our journey here on earth and, more importantly, for our journey from this life into eternity.

Now, by virtue of our baptism, we are already members of the Body of Christ. So I think that tells us something.

A priest that I know does something that I find very interesting and challenging, right after the Lamb of God. After all of us says, "Lord, I am not worthy to receive You, but only say the word and I shall be healed," while the chalice and the host are still elevated, he says, "Receive what you are. Become what you receive." If we are members of the Body of Christ, then we have to become the bread that sustains others as they journey through this life.

Being bread, feeding others doesn't always involve food. When others are in spiritual or emotional crises, we, the members of the Body of Christ, must be there to feed them with our support. When we observe injustice and indifference in the world, we, the members of the Body of Christ, have to speak up and feed those who are disadvantaged, and be catalysts for justice. We have to 5 share the love of God with everyone we meet, regardless of their circumstances. And be certain of this: God often hangs around some pretty ungodly places.

In baking bread, what started out for my mom as a way to stretch the budget ended up being an act of love for her family. She baked the bread for our physical nourishment. But the love that she put into it made it somewhat a spiritual food for us as well. That was how God called my mom to be bread for others.

God calls all of us to be bread in different ways. Some are called to be bread for others by being foster parents or social workers, maybe homeless shelter volunteers, or teachers. We are all called to be bread, whatever our circumstances. And no call is higher or lower than another. Whatever we are called to do, the great paradox is this: By the grace of God, the more that we become bread for others, the more they become bread for us, and we are mutually nourished by the experience.

cml