Catechesis Notes for the Week — I Am the Living Bread — “Jesus calls Himself ‘the living bread’ because he is the source of eternal life. To eat of Him in faith is to receive the gift of eternal life. If anyone eats of Him, he will live forever. To speak of Jesus as ‘bread’ is the language of metaphor that immediately brings to mind the notion of eating. Jesus then defines the metaphor by saying, ‘The bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.’ The Word became flesh (John 1:14). Jesus suffered and died for our salvation in the flesh. He made full atonement for our sin in the flesh, to take away our sin and to restore us to life with God. He rose from the dead in the flesh the third day. Now, in the Sacrament of the Altar, He gives us His very flesh to eat for eternal life. How can His flesh give eternal life? Because His flesh took away the sin that caused our death and separated us from God. He gave His flesh into death for the life and salvation of the whole world. Jesus’ words call everyone to believe in Him. He who believes in Him desires to be baptized, and he who is baptized desires to receive His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper precisely because of Jesus’ promise: ‘If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.’” [Excerpted from Lutheran Catechesis: Catechist Edition]CP240225