The Bread of Life: Are you looking for something fulfilling?

And Jesus said to them “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.” —John 6:35

The human condition is characterized by persons seeking meaning, purpose, and fulfillment — something that will truly satisfy. Many of us relentlessly pursue goals of wealth, influence, power, status, “getting to the top,” sacrificing our time with family, friends, and community as we spend long hours in pursuit of these goals, only to be utterly disappointed by the outcomes of such quests. At the same time, there are experiences in life that bring seasons of joy and significance — falling in love, a vacation to a beautiful country, a trip to Disneyland, a noteworthy achievement in the workplace, the completion of a doctoral degree at a prestigious university, a performance of Handel’s Messiah — all can bring delight and a sense of meaning.

And yet, we recognize that these experiences are temporary and do not truly satisfy. We are left with the realization that our desires have become attached to objects or goals that cannot bring lasting fulfillment. At best, our longings for meaning are signposts, something that points beyond ourselves, to another world that might bring meaning to life.

The great Russian novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn captured this sentiment in his 1970 Nobel acceptance speech:

Through art we occasionally receive — indistinctly, briefly — revelations the likes of which cannot be achieved by rational thought.  It is like that small mirror of legend: you look into it but instead of yourself you glimpse for a moment the Inaccessible, a realm forever beyond reach. And your soul begins to ache.

What is this for which “your soul begins to ache?” What is this world that lies beyond human experience that we long for that could potentially satisfy and fulfill? There is a passage in the Gospel of John that can help us answer these questions; and this passage makes clear that we are able to glimpse something that is Accessible.

Jesus miraculously fed 5,000 in the wilderness on the other side of the Sea of Galilee with five barley loaves and two fish. The next day, the crowd returned to the city of Capernaum looking for Jesus, seeking another free meal, another miraculous experience. A dialog ensues where Jesus admonishes the crowd that they are far too concerned with physical bread that only sustains earthly life; instead of this temporary, fleeting kind of bread, they ought to seek “the true bread from heaven that gives life to the world” (John 6:34); the crowd then tells Jesus, “Sir, give us this bread always.” To which Jesus asserts, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (John 6:35).

One of my graduate professors would at times say, “far too often we read Scripture with ‘glazed eyes,’ not recognizing their true intent.” This is such a passage; it is an astonishing, stunning, breathtaking, extraordinary passage. It is the first of seven “I am” sayings in the Gospel of John. In declaring to the crowds — I am the Bread of life — Jesus of Nazareth echoes the name of God (Ex 3:14), claiming to be none other than God Incarnate, the only One who can offer eternal life, the only One who can provide the life-giving Bread from the Father that can occasion profound and permanent fulfillment.

We have come upon an important truth — “our longings and desires have their origins in God and can only be fulfilled by God . . . this does not mean that our earthly joys and hopes are to be seen as foolish, or things we should condemn. Good though they are, they pale into significance compared with the greater joy that is had through knowing God” (Alister McGrath, The Unknown God: Searching for Spiritual Fulfillment, 42, 44-45).

May each one of us, created in the image of God with souls that cry out for meaning, purpose, and fulfillment, partake of the Bread of Life so that our core emptiness may find lasting fulfillment and joy in Him. We have glimpsed that which is Accessible! Thanks be to God.

—Leo Ranzolin, ThD, is dean of the School of Religion.