He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him

 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 

In yesterday's reading, we read that the Jews complained about Jesus, 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?"  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.  As Jesus is in the synagogue at Capernaum, we must infer that the term the Jews refers to the rulers in the synagogue (and not to the common people).  My study bible tells us that the Eucharistic significance of this passage is indisputable.  Christ's declaration that He is the living bread that gives life (verse 51, from yesterday's reading, above) reveals the Mystical Supper of the New Testament Church.  It notes that as John's Gospel does not report the details of the Last Supper (such as the "words of institution" which we read in Luke 22:19-20).  But instead, John gives us Jesus' revelation of the significance and truth of these events, which by the time this Gospel was written, were already known to its hearers in the Church.  Therefore, John reports Jesus' own words to an audience already familiar with the Eucharist.  My study bible further comments that Christ was crucified in the flesh and His blood was shed on the Cross -- and on the third day He was raised in a glorified state.   Therefore we come to Him in faith (verse 35) and receive Holy Communion in faith in order to receive the grace of Christ's sacrificial offering.  When Christ says, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood . . . " He speaks of a mystery, a mystical presence which makes possible eternal life through faith, as He abides in us and we in Him.  My study bible quotes St. Hilary of Poitiers:  "There is no longer room left for any 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."

 The issue of Christ's "real presence" in the Eucharist is one upon which many churches and denominations have varied answers and positions.  For the Orthodox, generally speaking, the answer is left up to mystery.  That is, we have these words of Christ given to us by John, in the witness of the early Church.  As John's Gospel was the last of the four Gospels to be written, it gives us a picture of the understanding already developed in the early Church at that time (sometime during the last decades of the first century).   In the picture the Gospel paints for us today, that is clearly a depth of Eucharistic understanding that was well-developed and deliberate.  We are given the Eucharist in a "mystical supper," one which not only affirms Christ's sacrifice on the Cross, but also gives us a depth of participation in His life, death, and Resurrection that feeds body, soul, and spirit.  Through faith, Christ enables us to fully participate in His life and His work.  John's chapter 6 is filled with affirmations of this theological perspective of the early Church.  Christ speaks of the "work of God" in which He encourages all to labor by saying, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent" (6:29).   Without faith, how is it possible to accept the teachings in today's reading?  Jesus affirms that to "eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood" is to abide in Him and He in us.  Jesus speaks of a dependency within which we dwell as faithful:  "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me."  Therefore, this Eucharistic mystery is meant to enable us to live a full life -- body, soul, and spirit -- in dependency upon Christ, He in us and we in Him.  These words, it seems to me, are unmistakable, and they are meant to be deliberately so.  This, then, is the understanding of the early Church.  It is a way of life that integrates and permeates all aspects of what it is to live as fully human, with full potentials as endowed by Creator, and with a purpose encased and embedded, if you will, in the Incarnation itself.  As Jesus calls Himself "Son of Man" in this passage, it is deliberately indicated that only through the Incarnation is this possible, and only through this flesh and blood of the Incarnation, and the entirety of what that means in terms of life, Passion, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension.  And all of these things are therefore meant and deliberately understood to be a part of the Mystical Supper, the Eucharist.  One may search to find explanations, but the fullest and best explanation is the one that acknowledges that there are things about God, and about the holy, to which we are not privileged to have access, which we don't fully understand, and should not claim to do so.  We should be satisfied and accepting of notions of mystery.   There is a familiar formula in the Orthodox tradition that puts it this way:  for now, we accept this understanding, and we hope to know more in the future.  That may not always sit well with what people might term a "scientific understanding" of how to live life.  But if every scientist only accepted as valid and real and true what has already been proven to his or her satisfaction, then I would say science would be limited indeed.  For all new scientific exploration rests upon faith of some kind, and the assumptions that are always required in testing new hypotheses constitute a form of faith in themselves.  If this holds true even for scientific testing, then think what room there is in pursuing an understanding of a both visible and invisible cosmos -- and even beyond, to the things of God.   As Jesus has said to Nicodemus:  "If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" (3:12).   Let us consider what we have been given, especially in light of the nature of mystery and the holy.  As we will see in the following reading, Jesus' own followers will find these words most difficult indeed.