Friday, 4/17/15
Our Gospel today gives us the first
fifteen verses of Chapter Six of John’s Gospel -- a chapter concerned with Jesus being the true
bread come down from heaven.
I want you to note how it says,
“The Jewish feast of Pass over was near.” Let me point out that St. John also made that comment at
the beginning of his Gospel, and then again at the end.
Now, if you pour over John’s Gospel
you will become aware of how John had an underlying plan for his Gospel. He wanted to show us that
just as God chose Moses to lead his people first from the slavery in Egypt,
then through the desert years, and finally into the promised land; so God chose
Jesus to lead us out of slavery to sin, through our desert years, and into our
promised land of heaven.
In writing his Gospel, John marked
the entry into each of the three divisions of his story by dropping the phrase,
“The Passover of the Jewish people was near.
John first inserted that phrase in
Chapter Two when he echoed the break with the slavery of Egypt with his story
of Jesus driving the dealers out of the temple. He dropped that phrase again here
where the story of Jesus being the true bread from heaven echoes the manna from
heaven in the desert years in Exodus. He inserted the words “the Passover of the Jews was near” at
the end of Chapter Eleven when Mary of Bethany is about to anoint the body of
Jesus for its passage from this world.
When the readings at Mass
following Easter speak of our joy at taking part in the Paschal Mystery, they
are referring to the way that Jesus leads us into the Promised Land of Heaven.
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