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

 

 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 sayings He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.

 

- John 6:52-59 

 

Yesterday we read that, as Jesus taught in the synagogue in Capernaum, some then 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?"  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."

 

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 sayings He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.  My study Bible comments here that the eucharistic significance of this passage is indisputable.  Christ's declaration that He is Himself the living bread that gives life reveals the Mystical Supper of the New Testament Church.  My study Bible also explains for us that John does not report the details of the Last Supper (such as the "words of institution" recorded in Luke 22:19-20), but instead, John's Gospel reveals the significance and truth of these events -- events which were already known to the hearers of the Gospel -- by reporting Christ's own words.  It invites us to consider that, as Christ was crucified in the flesh, and His blood shed on the Cross, and on the third day He was raised in a glorified state.  So we receive the grace of this sacrificial offering by Christ by coming to Him in faith (verse 35) and by receiving Holy Communion in faith.  If we understand His explicit teaching, in Communion we eat His flesh and drink His blood which are mystically present, feeding us for eternal life, with Christ abiding in us and us in Him.  My study Bible quotes St. Hilary of Poitiers on this passage:  "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."

Let us consider Christ's words earlier to Nicodemus:  "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:13-15).  Our early Christian ancestors understood this to mean that, as Christ became fully human, and ascended with His humanity to heaven, so human nature is capable of this deification, of being nurtured not only for earthly life but also for an eternal life.  In today's passage, Jesus' words teach us this more clearly -- that the mystical presence of Christ in the Eucharist feeds us more than bread and wine, more than food and drink, but even His Body and Blood.  In the Orthodox Church, there was never developed a doctrine of transubstantiation, a literal understanding as a physical explanation, but rather the acceptance that Christ's presence is mystically true, in accordance with His word and teaching.  St. Irenaeus writes on Christ's words in today's passage:  "For we offer to him his own, announcing consistently the fellowship and union of the flesh and Spirit. For as the bread that is produced from the earth, when it receives the invocation of God, is no longer common bread but the Eucharist, consisting of two realities, earthly and heavenly, so also our bodies when they receive the Eucharist are no longer corruptible, having the hope of the resurrection to eternity" (Against Heresies 4.18.5).  For our modern ears and understanding, we seem capable of understanding things only as either literally true in some earthly physical sense, or as mere symbol.  But these words offer to us a mystical reality, and the whole of Christ's life speaks of a mystical reality that is present to us even if we do not perceive it with physical human senses of eyes, ears, nose, touch, etc.  What we call a "sign" (such as the seven signs reported in John's Gospel) is a rare physical manifestation of what is always mystically present, the Kingdom of which Christ speaks to us.  Christ Himself is always mystically present to us, as is the Holy Spirit who "brings to your remembrance all things that I said to you" (see John 14:26).  St. Paul tells us that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1), even angels and saints, and these, too, are part of the Kingdom present with us in worship and prayer.  Exactly how this happens is not our purview, but part of the Mystery of God, the "heavenly things" about which Christ speaks to Nicodemus (John 3:12).  To be mystically present does not require the perception of physical senses (nor some sort of "proof") in order to be real and true.  But this asks of us faith, what Jesus calls "the work of God" (John 6:27-29), the grace of the love of the Father that reaches toward us and within us to draw us to Christ (John 6:43-45).  Let us consider His words, and what they teach to us.