Jesus in the gospel speaks of the bread of life and ponts toward himself. In the connection of this bread of life he also points toward the "last day."
Pope Benedict speaks of the bread of life in this way:
"What we call bread contains the mystery of the Passion. Before there can be bread, the grain of wheat must be placed into the earth, it must die, only then can new growth begin."
Bread has within it the capacity to receive the mystery of Christ' passion, death and resurrection. For bread to be bread it must suffer death and rise anew in order to offer nourishment and life.
This bread captures the fullness of the passion. It unites both the death and the resurrection and thus contains the full spectrum of life: birth, death, birth again.
Every eucharist thus brings forth the fullness of life. Every reception points us toward the last day that will give way to the first day of forever. This is the bread of life in totality.
We can never truly understand the gift of life and receive the gift of life unless we understand its totality and its finality. As we hold the bread of life in our hands we peer into the last day no longer with fear and trembling but with gratitude and great expectation for the moment when we shall see "be like him, for we shall see him face to face.'
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