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The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven -- not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever." These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.
- John 6:52-59
This week the lectionary has given us John's chapter 6. It began with feeding of 5,000 men (and more women and children) in the wilderness (Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?), who had followed Jesus there. Afterward, the people sought to make Jesus king, but He evaded them and went to the mountain. He sent His disciples across the Sea of Galilee in the night, and walked on the water to them when they were in the middle of a storm. Seeing no boat of the disciples, the people went to Capernaum to follow Him, and asked Jesus how He came to be there. Still, He said they sought Him only for the food they had been fed. He taught, "Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life." When they asked, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent." Jesus taught that He was the bread of life. In yesterday's reading, we read that the leadership complained about Him, because He said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." And they said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, 'I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus therefore answered and said to them, "Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."
The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" The leadership argues about Jesus and His controversial sayings. But again, John's Gospel - as it so often does - asks us to take a deeper look, to grow more deeply in our understanding of what Jesus teaches us and of how we practice our faith. If we look at it that way, it is the right question!
Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." Jesus repeats what He has said several times throughout the past few readings. The food He offers is that which leads into eternal life. But this time He ties it with "His flesh" and "His blood" which is true food for the eternal life, and linked to the sacrifice that He will make. He speaks of a type of union with Him that goes more deeply into who we are than any other type of food we understand. As He taught in yesterday's reading, this food is "for the life of the world." My study bible says here: "Christ's body was crucified and His blood shed on the Cross. We receive the benefits of Christ's sacrifice by coming to Him in faith, and by communion with Him: we eat His flesh and drink His blood. These words refer directly to the Eucharist, the mystery of Christ our life. His words are clear: To receive everlasting life, we must partake of His eucharistic flesh and blood. St. John Chrysostom (Homily 47:2) teaches we must not understand the sacrament carnally, that is, according to the laws of physical nature, but spiritually, perceiving a true but mystical presence of Christ in the Eucharist."
"For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me." Here we delve more deeply into the mystery of relationship and relatedness. Over and over again, as Jesus has been quizzed about His own identity, He first refers consistently back to the Father to state who He is. Now, He gives us our identity as His believers, and relates again to the relationship with the Father. Whoever "eats His flesh and drinks His blood" abides in Him, and He in them! He likens this to His relationship to the Father: "he who feeds on Me will live because of Me." It is a statement of true interdependence, a relationship that goes to the depths of who we are, more deeply than we can understand ourselves. It is also a binding that will hold fast through to an eternal life. My study bible quotes St. Hilary of Poitiers: "What we say concerning the reality of Christ's nature within us would be foolish and impious were we not taught by His very words. . . . There is no room left for doubt about the reality of His flesh and blood, because we have both the witness of His words and our own faith. Thus, when we eat and drink these elements we are in Christ and Christ is in us" (On the Trinity, Book VIII, 14). It adds that this is a profound mystery of faith and grace.
"This is the bread which came down from heaven -- not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever." These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. The theology of the Christian East teaches that this mystical supper isn't simply partaking of a physical/material body, but that Jesus is speaking of His glorified and Resurrected Body and Blood of Christ. Thereby, it is food "from heaven" and leads to an eternal life of resurrection.
As I have many readers from many different Christian traditions, let me add that faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist does not prevent us from understanding His words about His relationship to us in many ways. St. Ambrose has said, "Whoever experiences this downpour of divine Wisdom is delighted, and, needing no other food, lives not on bread alone but on every word of God" (Letter 77). As Jesus taught that to have faith in Him is to do the work of God, so we can understand His work in the world, His teachings, and the great sacrifice that He will make for the life of the whole world. To understand His mystical presence, His true food and drink for us, is to take a wholistic picture of the entire practice and living of our faith. To practice our communal rites and to partake of His Body and Blood is to understand the depth to which Christ lives in us, and the depth to which He calls us to live our faith. To become our "food" is to dwell as a part of us, to live in His sacrifice for us, so that we will live in Him, in that greater Body of Christ that is truly meant for the life of the whole world. In this way, we participate in the sacraments so that we may then live our lives in Him, and abide in Him, and consider always the sacrifice He calls us to, and the work -- His work -- that He calls us into. It's an awesome mystery, that promises us depths we will never finish finding, because it is unto eternal life. Let us consider the depth of love into which we enter and in which we are invited to participate and grow. Whatever we do to practice our faith, it is God's love that truly gives us life; in the memory of His sacrifice for us, there is the understanding of how we take on His likeness, and how we grow into it in a life of faith. It is that love that calls us to His cup. It is that love that truly feeds us His life. Let us remember that Jesus' statements are unequivocal -- without this food and drink, there is no life in us!
