As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me

 

 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 we have been reading through chapter 6 of John's Gospel.  The chapter begun with the miracle of the loaves and the fishes, in which 5,000 men (and more women and children) were fed with five barley loaves and two fish.  But from there, as is typical of John's Gospel, Jesus' teachings expanded, as the people sought to compel Him to be king.  He has been teaching about the bread from heaven.  In yesterday's reading, we were told that the religious leaders 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 learned 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.  If we review the events that have led to this juncture, we remind ourselves that the crowds have followed Jesus since the feeding in the wilderness (see Monday's reading), as they wanted to forcefully make Him king.  He evaded the people by walking on the water (Tuesday's reading), and finally had returned to Capernaum, where He now has been teaching in the synagogue.  The crowds have followed Him, but now we also have the input of the religious leaders, who question Him.  As is so often the case in John's Gospel, our passage today begins with a misunderstanding, which Jesus must expand upon and explain, when the religious leaders (the Jews, as John's Gospel uses the term) as one another, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?"  My study bible comments on today's passage 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.  We receive the grace of Christ's sacrificial offerings by coming to Him in faith ("I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst," verse 35), and by receiving Holy Communion in faith.  In Communion, we eat His flesh and drink His blood in its mystical presence, and this grants the faithful eternal life ("Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day," verse 54).  In this way, Christ abides in us and us in Him ("He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him," verse 56).  My study bible quotes St. Hilary of Poitiers:  "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."

My study bible has expanded upon the teaching that there are many parallels in chapter 6 of John's Gospel to the Exodus story in which Israel fled Egypt.  Let us first recall that John 6 begins by telling us that it is now the time of Passover (see 6:4).  In the Exodus story (Exodus 11-17), God fed Israel (God's people) with manna, and gave them drink from a miraculous source of water (Exodus 16:1-17:7).  In today's reading, and in Christ's recent teachings we've been reading about, Jesus declares Himself to be the true food and drink, the true bread that has come down from heaven (verses 48-58, given over our past two readings).  My study bible comments that these parallels show that Christ our God is the fulfillment of the old covenant, and that the breaking of His body and the shedding of His blood, which free humankind from the slavery of sin, fulfill the sacrifice of the Passover lambs (John 1:29), which brought the people out of slavery into the Promised Land.   The misunderstandings which we encounter in John's Gospel regarding the metaphors that Jesus must use to teach people about the mystical realities present in His mission to us, serve as platforms for teaching.  We have to consider, as do the religious leaders, for example, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?"   What does that mean exactly?  He has taught us that He will give His flesh through His sacrifice on the Cross, when He said, in yesterday's reading (above) that "the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."  When Jesus went by night to teach Nicodemus, He said to Nicodemus at one point, "If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" (John 3:12).  By "earthly things" Jesus meant the mystical realities He was bringing into the world, such as the mystery of Holy Baptism, and in the case in today's reading, the mystery of the Eucharist.   If we are to understand these things properly, and clearly in accordance with the teachings in John's Gospel, we need to understand them as mysteries:  that is, as elements of the divine or sacred which are brought into our world through Christ's Incarnation and mission to us, and given to us even as part of our lives in this world.  As Christ was the "God-Man," the union of both the human and the divine, so He gave us the mysteries -- the sacred sacraments -- of the Church, meant to unify heaven and earth.   This is the understanding of the ancient early Church, and it remains true today in the mystical presence of the Eucharist and other sacraments, in the working of the Holy Spirit in our world and our lives, in our prayer lives, in the reality of God's presence which Jesus taught abides in us.  This is the great gift of John's Gospel.  It's found in all the Gospels, but is truly present here in its most specific and elaborate forms of meaning given in Christ's words to us all throughout the Gospel.  If we lose the concept of God mystically present to us and meant to be a part of our world as the full effect of Christ's mission as Incarnate Son, then we lose the great gift the gospel message is meant to be.  Jesus called Himself the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 5:17).  In the flesh, He is Lord, and come to bring us closer and into union with Him, to give us grace which remits sin, sets us free from the slavery of sin, and to be "taught by God" (John 6:45, quoting from Isaiah 54:13).  Through His Passion, He will bring the divine fully into union with our human experience in this world, and offer us His flesh to eat -- the mystical reality of His once-and-for-all sacrifice which brings us into union with Him -- which allows us to participate in the life of Christ.  None of these things are "magic."  They are not meant to be some sort of wishing well, or simplistic set of special incantations.  To see them this way is to have no understanding but a materialistic way of seeking to perceive a deeper reality.   We enter into a depth of these realities through faith.  This is our connection.  And it is that faith to which we must consistently turn as we encounter obstacle and difficulty in our lives, struggle with temptations, meet cruelty or hardship or ignorance, and find God's way for ourselves.  This is the mission, the offering of the flesh which He gives "for the life of the world."   Jesus says, "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me."  Let us remember this connection we're given, this grace of participation in the life of the divine.  We are meant to "taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8), to find our lives through the life He offers to us, even as He says.