Monday, August 13, 2018

"HOW CAN THIS MAN GIVE US HIS FLESH TO EAT?"



August 19th, 2018: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B. John 6:51-58.
AIM:  To explain the doctrine of the Real Presence, and to help the hearers receive the Eucharist worthily.
 
The gospel reading we have just heard marks a turning point in Jesus= life. Immediately after this passage, John tells us, AMany of [Jesus=] disciples exclaimed, >This is more than we can stomach! Why listen to such talk?=@ And a few verses later John adds: AFrom that time on, many of his disciples withdrew and no longer went about with him@ (6:60 & 66).
What caused this defection? It was Jesus= claim: AI am the living bread that came down from heaven.@ Jesus= hearers knew all about Abread from heaven.@ That was the manna with which God had fed his people in the wilderness. That bread had nourished those who received it, but it did not make them immortal. Jesus did not hesitate to claim, however, that the bread he gives would impart immortality: AThe bread I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. ... Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.@
That sounded preposterous. AHow can this man give us his flesh to eat?@ Jesus= hearers asked indignantly. The question was understandable. How could someone claim that he would give people his flesh to eat and expect to be taken seriously?
Despite the uproar his teaching caused, Jesus did not soften his claim or try to explain it away. On the contrary, he strengthened it, speaking now not only about eating his flesh but also about drinking his blood. That was scandalous. Jewish dietary law, still followed by observant Jews today, strictly forbids the consumption of blood in any form. To be Kosher, which means ritually pure, meat must come from an animal that has been killed so that all the blood is drained from it. [Cf. Lev. 17:10-14; Act 15:29]  
Jesus also strengthened his previous language about eating his flesh. Up to this point the gospel writer, John, uses the ordinary Greek word for Aeat@ [phagein].  After the indignant question, AHow can he give us his flesh to eat?@ John shifts to a stronger word [trÇgein] which normally refers to how animals eat: something like  Amunch@ or “devour” in English. To capture the force of this word we could translate, not: AWhoever eats my flesh ...@ but, AWhoever feeds on my flesh ... @ 
Strong language indeed. Small wonder that even many of Jesus= disciples Awithdrew and no longer went about with him@ (6:66). We might do the same if the full force of Jesus= teaching, and the astonishing nature of his claim, had not been dulled for us by constant repetition. We need to listen afresh to Jesus= words, to let them penetrate our hearts, our minds, and souls as if we were hearing them for the first time. They take us into the heart of our Christian and Catholic faith. Jesus= words in today=s gospel concern the inner meaning of the Eucharist in which, as St. Paul tells us, we Aproclaim the Lord= death, until he comes@ (1 Cor. 11:26).
Many Scripture scholars believe that Jesus uttered his words about the bread of life at the Last Supper. To support this view, they point out that John=s gospel gives no account of the institution of the Eucharist. Instead John recounts Jesus= washing of the disciples= feet, and then passes at once to the departure of the traitor, Judas.
Whenever Jesus spoke the words, we cannot read them today without reference to the Eucharist. More than the other three gospels, which do record Jesus= institution of the Eucharist, this fourth gospel which contains no such record tells us what the Eucharist does for the believing follower of Jesus Christ who participates in this sacred meal with living faith.    
The indignant question, AHow can this man give us his flesh to eat?@ is unanswerable apart from faith. If Jesus is a mere man like any other, then clearly he cannot give us his flesh to eat. Faith tells us, however, that Jesus, while completely human, is also more than human. He is the one who reveals God. He is God=s divine Son. 
Physically, the food that Jesus offers us in the Eucharist is ordinary bread and wine. Spiritually, which means in their inner, invisible reality, the consecrated elements are the risen and glorified body and blood of our divine Savior and Lord.  As the Catechism says: AIn the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist, >the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.=@ (1374)
When we receive this Abread from heaven@, we become partakers of the divine life that Jesus shares with his heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit. This is why Jesus could say: AWhoever eats this bread will live forever.@ The human life we received from our parents will not continue forever. The divine life, however, given to us first in baptism and nourished in this sacred banquet, will continue forever. Because we share in this divine life, Jesus could also say: AWhoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.@
To benefit from receiving Christ=s body and blood, however, we must come to the Eucharist with due preparation and in living faith: with sorrow for our sins and trust in God=s forgiving love. The Catechism spells out this preparation as follows: AAnyone conscious of grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to communion ... To prepare for the worthy reception of this sacrament, the faithful should observe the fast required in their Church.  Bodily demeanor (gestures, clothing) ought to convey the respect, solemnity, and joy of this moment when Christ becomes our guest.@  (1385 & 1387).
Without preparation and living faith we cannot derive nourishment from this spiritual food, any more than our bodies can derive nourishment from ordinary food when our digestion is undermined by illness or unhealthy living. The more faith we bring to the Eucharist, the greater will be its power to bring us close to Jesus Christ and to build up within us his gift of eternal life.

In the Eucharist we receive Christ=s body. Ordinary food is absorbed, through the process of digestion, into our bodies. In the case of the bread from heaven which Jesus gives us in the Eucharist, exactly the opposite happens. Receiving Christ=s body, we become members of his body. No one has said it better than St. Augustine: AIf you receive worthily, you are what you have received.@

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