The Battle for the I AM

Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” 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. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me; and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:32 – 40

The Gospel of St John often speaks to us through what is not said. In the first reflection we saw that the name “Christ” is rarely used, Jesus is called Jesus. Then right at the end in Chapter 20 John says that ‘Jesus is the Christ’. We also notice that John never reveals himself as the author, but speaks of himself as ‘the Disciple whom Jesus loved’. It is as though after hearing the word ‘I’ uttered from the mouth of Christ he cannot then use it to refer to himself.

Then in verses 32 to 40 we are drawn by the repeated use of a word like “will” – seven times it is used. The work of the will in our being is unconscious, for instance, we don’t know what happens when we digest our food. So why is the will unconscious? Because we created it in our last life. Whenever we used our will we create a force that will be expressed in the future. According to the extent that we use our will, as well as the calibre of that will, we create forces for our next incarnation.

This shows us how important the will is and it is also why there are so many exercises to develop our will. Reverend Mario Schoenmaker so often emphasised, “Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’. He knew that the secret of developing our will forces could be found in this activity.

One of the most important will-tasks in this life is to infuse our thinking with will. Not the will that rises up unconsciously from the body, but the force of the will from the Father which is in our I AM. In verse 38 we read, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me:” The will associated with the I AM gives us the ability to control our thinking, to become more aware, more conscious and more aligned with the spiritual worlds.

This first I AM saying gives us clues about how to set this in motion. The I AM is the bread of life, it satisfies hunger and quenches thirst …huh? Since when did we drink bread? Well, hunger and thirst are the organic processes of the body, powerful drives which demand to be satisfied. They are, in fact, the mechanism that attracts the soul to the body; otherwise our soul would prefer to float off into the wide blue yonder with our spirit. The words Christ spoke from the cross, “I thirst” indicate that he was fully incarnated in the body Jesus prepared for him. This was the great Sun Being’s first experience of the hidden will forces in the human physical body. This was the signal that he could complete his deed of imbuing the earth and everything in it with love and freedom.

Since Golgotha bread from the bakery will not satisfy our hunger and thirst, only a deepening relationship with our I AM can do that. If we look around in the world we see the substitute for this satisfaction in commercialism and consumerism. People everywhere try to satisfy their growing inner dissatisfaction with outer things.

So we must strive, rigorously strive – which means using the will – to make the strong connection with our I AM, then we shall no longer be dissatisfied, no longer be hungry and thirsty.

So the bread in our passion feast reminds us that the will from the Father is in the I AM and it will give us life.