One of my favorite childhood memories is Sunday mornings. My mother would always make the gravy, or as most people call it, the pasta sauce. In our house, it was the gravy. We’d go to church, and she said, “If you’re good in church, when we get home, you’ll be able to take some of that nice, crusty Italian bread and I’ll let you dip it in the gravy as a little treat.” We always looked forward to that, and so I can remember dipping my bread into the gravy. The problem was, we always wanted more. I had two brothers and myself, and we always wanted more, and that’s when trouble might start, because Mom would have to say, “No more. I don’t want you to spoil dinner.” And of course, I always listened; my other brothers didn’t. That’s not true.

But at any rate, thinking of that childhood memory reminds me of the Gospel today, and how the people wanted more of what Jesus had given them in the Gospel last week, the loaves and the fish. Jesus reminds them, he reminds the Israelites that they were given this manna, this bread, but it was bread that was perishable. He comes to give bread that is eternal. And so Jesus reminds us today that he comes and he feeds us with himself. He feeds us this bread of eternal life. He feeds us with himself so that we can become one with him.

And here’s the key: When we are one with him, then we are baked into bread for others. I want you to think about that today. We are baked into bread for others. Jesus feeds us with himself so that we can become his presence in the world. We make visible Jesus when we are kind and caring and compassionate. When we clothe the naked, feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, we become Jesus made visible for one another. And so I want us to think about that image today, that the Eucharist isn’t just for us; it’s really about us being present fully to one another. In the week ahead, look for those opportunities and the many ways that you will be called to become that baked bread, to become the very presence, the life of Jesus for another.