{"id":6352,"date":"2020-05-06T00:20:41","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T14:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6352"},"modified":"2020-05-06T00:26:54","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T14:26:54","slug":"the-bread-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/the-bread-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bread of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Bread of Life<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Michael Fanous<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The Second Sunday of\nthe Holy 50 days of the Resurrection<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John 6:35-45<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the Second Sunday\nafter the Resurrection of our Lord, the church represents the Lord as the Bread\nof life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the beginning, the Lord created Adam and Eve. They were in communion with the Lord. A holy communion with the Lord. When they were deceived by the serpent and ate of the tree of the knowledge, they lost communion. They became separated from God. They lost all hope of living an of eternal life with God. They began to feel shame. We read, \u201cThen the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked<\/em>\u201d (Genesis 3:7). The knowledge they had gained revealed their nakedness, their shame and they were ultimately rejected from the garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Lord put the tree\nof life in the middle of the garden, in the hope that they would eat of its\nfruits and live forever. On the contrary, they were deceived and ate of the\nfruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

God could not leave us\nin this state. Through His love, He had to come and redeem His creation. He\ncame in the fullness of time, He was born a virgin, He took our flesh, to\nrepresent a perfect Man to God, the Father, for humanity could not be perfect. This\nbecame our representation before the fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inevitably, He\nsuffered and endured the Cross. What amazes us is that He gave us Himself, His\nBody and Blood on Covenant Thursday, the day before the crucifixion. He did\nthis so we could have communion with Him once more \u2013 so that we could regain\nwhat was lost at the fall of man. This is the Bread of life that came from\nheaven. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this communion,\nwhat happens? We become one in Him, and He becomes one in us. This Communion is\nnot found anywhere else. No one can give their body and blood except for the\nLord, Himself. We are lucky that He comes in us, for us. This gives us power to\nbe in the presence of the Lord. Can you imagine if you walk with the King of\nKings, you wouldn\u2019t need anything else? You have protection, warmth, comfort, love,\neternity and you are freed from all harms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to overcome through the death of the\ntree of knowledge, we have to eat from the tree of life which is Christ.<\/strong> We are empowered to overcome sin. Our Lord\nsaid to us there is a condition for the grace, you must come to Me. He repeats\nthis three times in the gospel;<\/p>\n\n\n\n