Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. (John 6:52-59)
It has dawned on me that Jesus’ statement: “Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever” is quite strange. Jesus was a Jew with the same ancestors as the “quarreling Jews.” Moreover, he said this “while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.” Now that is bold! If I was in his audience, I would have shouted back, “So, who were your ancestors, rabbi?"
This important reading notes the early Jews being saved in the desert by manna from heaven – the name given to the food the Israelites ate during their wilderness wanderings described in Exodus chapter 16. Jesus tells the “quarreling Jews” that he is the new bread and “true food.” He adds whoever eats this food “will live forever.”
Of course, this statement sets the stage for the Eucharist – one of our seven sacraments. According to the Catechism: “From the moment a sacrament is celebrated in accordance with the intention of the Church, the power of Christ and his Spirit acts in and through it, independently of the personal holiness of the minister. Nevertheless, the fruits of the sacraments also depend on the disposition of the one who receives them. (1128)” Furthermore, “the fruit of the sacramental life is that the Spirit of adoption makes the faithful partakers in the divine nature by uniting them in a living union with the only Son, the Savior. (1129)”
As Bernard Cooke said in his 1997 book “The Future of the Eucharist: How a new self-awareness among Catholics is changing the way we believe and worship:” “…liturgical celebration makes the risen Christ increasingly present to and influential in people’s lives; gradually forges the assembled Christians into a true community of believers; and brings the assembled Christians to a realistic acceptance of Christianity’s mission of justice and peace in the world.”
Moreover, “…Like the ancient baptismal formula that forbade discrimination in the church between the rich and poor, slave or free, Jew or Gentile, male or female, today’s Eucharist calls Catholics to honor and implement the absolute equality of all persons by working to abolish discriminations. Like the covenant of Israel that fixed just relations among humans as the measure of their relation to God, the Eucharistic community itself is meant by its pursuit of justice to be a sacrament of humanity’s relationship to God.”
Finally, Cooke concludes: “To know that the eucharistic presence of the risen Christ is primarily his offer of friendship and not simply with the changing of bread and wine – though that change is intrinsic to his offer – can lead a group gathered for eucharist to realize and wonder at the “condescension” of God’s offer of intimacy with them. This is the real mystery of the eucharist. It is not something hidden and secret but revealed in all its unbelievableness…The Eucharist should express and celebrate the joys and sorrows, the hopes, dreams, and problems, the needs and commitments of the gathered community. It must celebrate the hope that dreams can be realized, commitments can be honored, and sorrow changed to joy because of the presence to their lives of the risen Lord. This is what lies behind the liturgical moment of prayers of the faithful.”
Jesus said: “Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him.” So, let’s eat!
Deacon David Pierce
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