The Body and Blood
of Christ (A) [Jn 6:51-58]
11.06.2023
Jesus Gives His Flesh to Eat and Blood to Drink
1. Theme in brief:
The reality of the Eucharist
2. Focus Statement:
Jesus is really and truly present in the Eucharist
in his entire Person (flesh and blood); through it he truly becomes our
spiritual food and drink; because it is his flesh given up (sacrificed) for the
sustenance of divine life in us.
3. Explanation of the text
In today’s gospel, Jesus speaks about more powerful bread than the manna eaten by the ancestors of the Jews in the desert (6:58). He says that those who eat this particular bread become sharers of God's own divine life (technically called ‘eternal life’ in John’s gospel), and live for ever in spirit even after their physical death (6:58). This bread is his “flesh,” that is, his entire self, which he would give up or sacrifice on the cross in order to give God’s own divine life to people of the world (6:51). In other words, in order to give divine life to the world, Jesus gives up his physical life as a sacrificial offering.
Jesus says that eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the “Son of Man” is not something optional for the believers, but absolutely needed to nourish their faith and the gift of divine life given to them. If they will fail to do so, they will have no divine life in them (6:53). In other words, divine life in them will dry up; hence that situation will lead them to a spiritual death gradually. The words “flesh and blood of the Son of man” instead of “my flesh and blood” indicate that we are not asked to eat literally the physical flesh (or meat) and blood of earthly Jesus (that is, Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus of history). That would amount to cannibalism and would sound sacrilegious not only to Jews of those days (who were strictly forbidden to drink or eat blood of animals in any form), but also to people of our times.
What Jesus says is that we should have an intimate communion with his spiritual flesh and blood after he will rise from the dead and will be glorified. As glorified Lord he is identified with “the Son of Man” or a divine person mentioned in the OT (cf. Dan 7:13). What Jesus actually means is that by receiving him through the sacramental sign of bread and wine the believers take him entirely into them, along with his divinity. This intimate communion sustains the eternal (divine) life infused in believers at baptism. Therefore, the phrase “flesh and blood” does not mean physical flesh and real blood from human body, but a union with Jesus’ whole being or entire life in its mortal and fragile condition as well as in its glorified and divine state.
When Jesus says that his flesh is true food and blood is true drink (6:55), he means to say that this food and drink do to the spiritual life of believers what food and drink do to their physical life; that is, they nourish their spirit. In other words, Jesus claims that he is truly and really present in the Eucharist; hence, it is really a spiritual food and drink for believers.
The believers’ union with Jesus enables them to share his life, just as Jesus’ union with the Father enables him to share his life (6:57).The reception of the Eucharist has threefold effect on them: (1) nourishment of eternal life (6:54, 58), (2) abiding in Jesus or mutual indwelling (6:56) and (3) a pledge of final resurrection, given with the assurance: “I will raise them up on the last day” (6:54).
4. Application to life
Today, as we celebrate the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, we firmly affirm and proclaim our faith that the Risen Lord Jesus is truly and really present in the Eucharist, because, as he claims in today’s gospel, his flesh is true food and blood is true drink (6:55). We raise our hearts and minds in thanksgiving to Our Lord in a special way for giving us the Eucharist as real spiritual food and drink to nourish our faith as well as our drooping spirit. What thanks can we render him for making a wonderful plan for our spiritual nourishment and growth? Again, today’s feast is such an act of thanksgiving, honour and praise to him.
Today’s gospel emphasizes two aspects of the Eucharist very much: sacrifice and shared life. All true life is sacrificial and sacrifices made out of genuine love for others always give life to them. Jesus sacrificed (gave up) his entire life or entire person (technically called his “flesh and blood” in today’s gospel) on the cross in order to give us God’s own life or divine life (called eternal life in John’s gospel). Now the same Lord becomes our Bread of Life in the Eucharist to nourish that divine life continually. We should never forget that the Eucharist is Jesus’ flesh or entire self given up (sacrificed) in order to go on feeding us with his divine life. This feast calls us to examine ourselves and see whether our entire life is spent only in pursuit of wealth and power, or in sharing our resources with the needy also, and whether we willingly make sacrifices for this kind of sharing.
Our common meals and banquets hosted on occasions like weddings are not meant only for filling our stomachs. If it were so, we could send some money to our relatives and friends and request them to have a nice meal in our name at their own homes on the occasion of wedding at our homes. When people gather at our invitation and share the banquet, it fosters love, communion, togetherness, fellowship and unity among all of us who share the same food. These banquets unite us and strengthen our relationships by coming together and socializing with one another. Similarly, the Eucharist also is a spiritual meal that gathers us together and results in an intimate relationship with Jesus as well as with one another. Unless we make the Eucharist as the source and summit of our life, we cannot grow in divine life. As mentioned in the explanation of the text, it is not optional.
Nowadays we are given a lot of health tips about the type of food we must eat and the type of food we must avoid in order to remain healthy. We are told to avoid “junk food” or “fast food” to maintain good health. The same thing is true about our spiritual health. If we do not bother to take care of our spiritual wellbeing by feeding our minds and spirit with spiritual food such as the Word of God and the Eucharist, sooner or later we are going to lose our spiritual health. We are constantly fed with all kinds of “junk food” or biased and fake news by a section of the mass media or social media. They feed us with a craving for possessions, positions, money, power, corruption, sex. We need a strong antidote to counter their negative influence on our minds and attitudes, because, ultimately we become what we eat – not only physically but also mentally and spiritually. Therefore, the question today’s feast wants us to consider is this: “Do you eat the spiritual food (Body and Blood of Christ) to resist negative and secular influences on your mind and grow spiritually?”
In today’s gospel, Jesus points to three effects or fruits of the reception of the Eucharist:
(1) Nourishing and sustaining the eternal life infused into us at baptism: As per John’s theology, eternal life, which begins at our baptism, is continually sustained and nourished by the Eucharist. Through the Holy Communion we take Jesus into us, and through him get into communion with God. Otherwise we shall suffer from under-nourishment or spiritual anaemia. We need to question ourselves whether we feed our hungry spirit for love and happiness with this spiritual food (Eucharist), or with pleasures, power, money, possessions and addictive behaviour.
Eternal life in John’s
gospel is a present
reality that can be experienced in this life itself to some extent. But it has
a future
fulfilment of total union with God in heaven (after death). The
present experience of eternal life means a special and new quality of existence for those
who believe in Jesus. It refers to a change in the quality of life, which a
believer must live. Because of our faith in
(2) A believer’s abiding in Jesus and Jesus’ abiding in him/her: This is called mutual indwelling. “Abiding” in Jesus or remaining with him refers to a personal and intimate relationship with him. It connotes an intimate union that takes place between Jesus and the one who feeds on him by faith. When we eat food, it becomes a part of our body and gets converted into energy. Similarly, when we feed on Christ we become more and more like him and grow into this intimacy.
This intimate union
of the believer with the Risen Christ results in bearing fruits of love, fellowship and
unity within our community more than the social banquets. Do we realize that it
is one and the same Lord who comes into the hearts of friends and foes, the
rich and the poor, Christians of this and that tribe/ caste/ race/ nationality,
and of this and that language?
(3) A pledge of our final resurrection, an eternal abiding with Jesus in heaven. The joy of this final resurrection is compared to an eternal banquet. The Eucharist is an anticipation of the eternal banquet, a foretaste of it! To put it in human language, the Eucharist becomes a pledge of hope to ‘sit’ with the Lord for an eternal banquet on the last day. Therefore, when we receive the Eucharist, sometimes we should remind ourselves of the hope of the life that is awaiting us. We should remind ourselves that the purpose of our life is not only to create an earthly legacy for ourselves – a name, fame, reputation and wealth. When we think of the impermanence of life, we realize our foolishness to put full trust in things of this world – as if we would enjoy them for ever!
5. Response to God's Word
Does the regular
reception of the Eucharist lead us to a deeper communion with
6.
A Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, you
gave your Church an admirable Sacrament as the abiding memorial of your
sacrificial love. Grant that the redeeming power flowing from this Blessed
Sacrament may sanctify us, nourish the divine life us, deepen our union with
you, lead us to go out of ourselves in sacrificial service and increase in us
the hope of being raised on the last day, where you live for ever. Amen.
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