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 

 

Yesterday we read that the leaders in the synagogue 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 in 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. Let us first remind ourselves that the term the Jews in John's Gospel is most frequently used to depict the religious leadership, as if we are talking of political parties.  Jesus, we're told, is teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum, so these are the rulers in the synagogue who repeatedly question Him for His teaching.  They clearly have no idea what He is talking about, as once again John's Gospel takes us from earthly understanding of things from daily life, to the meanings that Christ gives them.  My study bible comments on the entire passage in today's reading that the eucharistic significance of this passage is indisputable.  It says that Christ's declaration that He Himself is the living bread that gives life is a revelation of the Mystical Supper of the New Testament Church.  John's Gospel does not give to us the details of the Last Supper which Luke records (see Luke 22:19-20, which contains the "words of institution").  But John gives to us the significance and truth of these events, by giving to us Christ's own words.  We should keep in mind that the original hearers of these Gospels already knew of the events themselves.  Christ was crucified in the flesh and His blood was shed on the Cross.  On the third day He was raised in a glorified state.  My study bible further comments here that we receive the grace of His sacrificial offering by coming to Him in faith (verse 35) and receiving Holy Communion in faith.  In Communion, we mystically eat His flesh and drink His blood, and this grants the faithful eternal life, as Christ abides in us and us in Him.  St. Hilary of Poitiers comments here:  "There is no 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."

For many people, it seems, the meaning of "mystical" is lost in a modern social construct.  But the notion of the mystical is key to all of our apprehension of what faith is, and to the very existence of God.  While we cannot understand God as God understands God (in other words, we cannot know God as an equal or as a being of the same order), we are capable of apprehending that the qualities of God as Being as far beyond us, and yet also exist with us and within us.  God is of such dimensional reality that permeates all existence, has created all of existence that we know, and dwells also far beyond our comprehension and understanding.  These are the things we are capable of grasping.  But where God and the worldly intersect is by its very nature mystical, and the Church from her earliest beginnings accepted the presence in the Eucharist of the Body and Blood of Christ.  This is not, in the eyes of the Eastern Church, something explicable on worldly terms.  It is a given that it is true because we have the words of Christ, the Gospels, the witness of the earliest Church, and all the experience of the faithful since.  Our whole faith really makes sense through this understanding of the mystical, the reality of God's presence in our lives although we don't see God as God sees God.  We can sometimes sense God's presence, and we always must return to Christ's words regarding the Spirit, who together with the Father and the Son is worshiped and gloried (as we say in the Creed), also God:  "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8, in which Jesus teaches Nicodemus by night about holy baptism).  In the words of Christ, and to paraphrase, we cannot tell where God comes from or where God goes, but we can know the mystical reality of God in our lives and the evidence of God's interactions with us.  We can know through faith what God has done and is doing within us.  We know when our souls are filled, or when they are longing for something more that the world can't give us.  All of these things are part of what is mystical, the hidden reality of God which is, nevertheless, present with us.  Another term for sacrament is "holy mystery."  To quote from an OrthodoxWiki page, which explains succinctly much better than I do, "The holy mysteries or sacraments in the Orthodox Church are vessels of the mystical participation in divine grace of mankind."  The bread and wine of the Eucharist, as instituted at the Last Supper, and affirmed in the words of Christ in today's reading, are those vessels through which we partake of the mystical presence of Christ's Body and Blood.  We don't know how this happens; we take it on faith that it does.  For the Eastern Church, this mystery is left simply there, until such a time at which we no longer look through a glass darkly but know as we are known.   As St. Paul writes, "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known" (1 Corinthians 13:12).  We accept Christ's words which are truly indisputable, affirmed in so many ways in the Gospels, and forming a coherent whole with His life and ministry and repeatedly stated purpose of His ministry, mission, and Passion.  Let us for a moment retrieve the sense of true Mystery that belongs to our faith, and dwell where He goes and takes us with Him, even as we dwell in the world, for this is where we have been called.