In today’s Gospel reading we return to John chapter 6 to hear this amazing Eucharistic doctrine as Christ Himself presented it. What patience the Lord must have. For the last four weeks we have listened to Jesus’ teaching on ‘The Bread of Life.’ The people of the day, like children, were not satisfied with what He said because of its newness and mystery. They found it exceedingly hard to believe. As some do even today. To Christians reading it today, the discourse on the ‘Bread of Life’ is from its beginning focused on the Eucharist. Little by little they see its outlines becoming clearer. But now, Jesus speaks explicitly of this mystery of faith, both to us and to His audience at Capernaum.
‘I Am the living bread…. the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.’ Again, this is an enigmatic saying that arouses amazement. ‘How can this man give us [His] flesh to eat?’
If we take into account all that went before, we see that this question has a very different ring from the question that Mary humbly asked the angel before Christ’s birth: ‘How can this be?’ It is a different tone altogether — the Jews asked it as a renewed refusal to believe in Jesus’ word, which is, moreover, understood by the Jews in a grossly material sense. — Mary’s question had been to enquire how she could please God and do His holy will. Today, Christ is asking the people to trust Him, He is promising them the Eucharist, so familiar to us but not to them, in fact unknown to them. His promise will be fulfilled at the ‘Last Supper’ and given to us as a loving memorial.
Because of our faith in Jesus, we believe, and we have experienced Christ’s loving presence within the Eucharist; something the Jews have lacked. It is normal when we deny credibility to a person, to immediately take any saying that is at odds with all we hold dear as absurd, or at least give it short shrift. — then all attempts at explaining proves useless, the only result will be more ambiguities and more quibbling, in which the gainsayers often take pleasure by insidiously continuing arguments; this is what the Jews are about today. Accordingly, Jesus stops all discussion: and far from softening his preceding affirmation, He solemnly reiterates it with fresh insistence:
‘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 up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.’
The extraordinary force of each of these statements is further increased by repetition. Jesus is the Son of Man (God Incarnate). In the fourth Gospel, this way of designating Jesus evokes His heavenly origin, His being ‘Lifted up’ on the cross, His resurrection, His glorification by the Father. Christians, especially those somewhat familiar with Saint John’s Gospel understand that Jesus’ words here — must be understood in reference to the mysteries of the Incarnation and Easter celebrated in the Eucharist. They also notice their accord with the vocabulary of the accounts of the ‘Last Supper’.
We are speaking here of really eating the flesh of the Son of Man, now risen in the Father’s glory, and really drinking His blood. The realism of the words used leaves no doubt on the subject. (Up until now, St John has used the Greek verb Phagien, which simply means ‘to eat.’ From verse fifty-four onwards he uses another, stronger verb —Trogien — which means to ‘chew’. — to ‘munch’, to ensure Our Lord’s meaning is not misunderstood). The fact is that Jesus — [John strongly stresses the point] The Son of Man, has really assumed human flesh and not only a human appearance. It is how he begins his Gospel prologue: — ‘In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God…..The Word was made flesh and He dwelt among us.’ It is impossible to separate in Jesus His human nature — flesh and blood, — from His divine nature: ‘Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.’ In the cultural depths common to all peoples, blood is a most immediate symbol of that life which we have within ourselves, we share this with others who are our blood relatives. (Consanguineous). —It is so sacred, that a pact sealed in blood is for life. To mix even a drop of our blood with that of another is a gesture, a rite, the seriousness even a child understands. To drink the blood, then, of the Son of God Incarnate is to share in His life to the utmost. — in the life He possesses in its fullness:
‘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.’ — ‘I shall raise him [on] the last day.’ — ‘Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but they died, this is the bread that has come down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.’ This is why Tradition calls the Eucharist ‘The remedy of immortality’ the living bread that gives life forever: ‘May the mingling of the body and blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ bring eternal life to us who receives it,’ prays the priest at the Mass.
However, today, here in Capernaum, Jesus does not say how — through what sign — what sacrament — the true food and drink will be given. This revelation will come at Jesus’ ‘hour’ during the Last Supper He will have with His disciples; when He will show His own to what point He has loved them (John 13:1-2). The Jews are being given the opportunity today to have faith in Jesus — so that they too will be shown and accepted as His own and share in His Body and Blood. How they will consume his Body and Blood is yet to be revealed, for now they must have faith and accept Jesus’ word.
We are fortunate people for we know in hindsight how Jesus will feed us his Body and Blood. At Holy Mass, we share the bread and wine — ‘Which earth has given and human hands have made,’ changed for us by the invocation, the epiclesis of the Holy Spirit, into the Body ‘delivered up’ and the Blood ‘Given for the life of the world’ of Our Lord Jesus Christ. And if we have any doubt about it let us listen to what Saint Hilary. Bishop of Poitiers (315-67) said:
‘We speak of the Real Presence of Christ in us: if he himself has not taught this to us, we utter only foolishness and impiety. But he himself said ‘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’
The reality of His flesh and blood leaves no room for doubt, both according to the Lord’s teaching and our faith. We are speaking of true flesh and true blood. When we receive and absorb these substances, they put us in Christ and put Christ in us. Is this not truth? Perhaps it is not true for those who do not recognise the true God in Christ. But He is in us through His flesh and we are in Him. What we are is in God.’
‘Come eat my food and drink of the wine I have mixed.’ Thus, the announcement proclaimed by the maidservants in today’s first reading, when they are sent on the mountain to carry the invitation of Wisdom to the human beings lacking understanding. ‘Come to Me’ Jesus says in His turn. But now it is to call us to eat His body and drink His blood that gives eternal life.
Today’s Christians — like the original hearers of Saint John’s Gospel — know that in the discourse following the sign of the multiplication of the loaves, Jesus intends to speak of the Eucharist. The slow pace of John’s spiral like development and of his progression may disconcert us; we would like the evangelist to come to the point more rapidly. But no, we must go at the Lord’s pace; otherwise, we shall lose a great deal of the teaching He has transmitted to us. We are allowed to calmly reflect, taking our time, on this mystery of faith, which the Church has celebrated since its beginning and in which we participate. It is rooted in the long history of the marvellous deeds worked by God since the Exodus and in the unfolding of the revelation of God, who leads His people. ‘Tell them I AM sent you’ God says to Moses.
In order to plunge deeper into the understanding of the Eucharist, we must regularly revive our own comprehension of all the preceding signs that, from near or far, prepared for this day on which the Son of Man says: ‘I AM the living bread,’ and as He also said: ‘I AM the way the truth and the life’(Jn 14:6). ‘I AM.’ As John’s prologue tells us: ‘The Word was with God and the Word was God.’ Strengthened by this food from heaven, we shall be able to make the most of the opportunity and whatever the difficulties of the journey, to walk at a brisk pace, ‘reciting’ as Saint Paul says: ‘Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.’Travelling through life’s pilgrimage from Eucharist to Eucharist, we shall arrive at the promised day of eternal life.
As for the Jews in today’s Gospel, it’s crunch time; they have listened to Jesus intently, now the time of decision beckons — to believe Christ or not.
‘Come children, and hear me…… Taste and see that the Lord is good.’
