Pope: accepting Christ's mission means recognizing 'bread of life'

CWN - August 13, 2012

At his Angelus audience on Sunday, August 12, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the 6th chapter of St. John’s Gospel, in which Jesus identified Himself as the “bread of life,” and the difficulty that many of his Jewish listeners had in accepting that statement.

“In Jewish thought it was clear that the true bread from heaven, that nourished Israel was the Law, the word of God,” the Pope observed. “Now Jesus, in revealing himself as the bread of heaven, testifies that He is the Word of God in person, the Word incarnate.” This claim was difficult to accept, especially for those who knew Jesus from childhood.

The difficulty, the Pope said, stems from the failure of these listeners to “go beyond his earthy origins” and recognize that Jesus is the Son of God. As a result, those who did not believe could not accept Christ’s mission, and put themselves in the position of “opposing God’s work,” the Pope said.

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