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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
Over the course of chapter 6, we have been reading of events concerning Christ teaching that He is the bread of heaven. On Monday, we were given the reading which told of the feeding of the five thousand men (and more women and children) in the wilderness. From there, the people pursued Jesus to forcibly make Him king, but He evaded them -- and walked on the water to His disciples in boats crossing the sea. The people followed Him to Capernaum, where He has been teaching them about faith (the work of God), and the bread that He will give. In yesterday's reading, the religious leaders in the synagogue began to complain 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 text tells us that Jesus is speaking in the synagogue at Capernaum. In John's Gospel, reference to the Jews most frequently indicates the religious leaders, and not the Jewish people (all in the story are Jews, including Jesus and His disciples). Here, the leaders continue to dispute among themselves about Jesus and His teachings.
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." My study Bible 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. It says that we receive the grace of Christ's sacrificial offering by coming to Him in faith (verse 35) and by receiving Holy Communion in faith. In Communion, it says, we truly eat His flesh and drink His blood, as mystically present, thus forging a communion with Him that is of a depth we cannot know, granting the faithful eternal life, with Christ abiding in us and us in Him. Let us note, also, as does my study Bible, that the eucharistic significance of today's reading is very clear. His declaration in yesterday's reading that He is the living bread which came down from heaven, and gives life to the world (see above) is a revelation of the Mystical Supper of the New Testament Church. It says that John does not report the details of the Last Supper, such as the "words of institution" recorded by Luke (Luke 22:19-20). But here, instead, Jesus reveals the significance and truth of these events (which would already have been known to John's hearers) by reporting Christ's words here about them. 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 in us."
"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. Once again, Jesus goes back to His inseparable union with the Father -- but He is extending that union to us, and the sacrament of that union and that life of living in Him is the Eucharist. He promises that He is the bread which came down from heaven, and he who eats this bread will live forever.
So these are tremendous words we read in today's text, and the source of disputes throughout the centuries since. We might ask the same questions the religious leaders do: "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" Some answer this question with theories about how this literally happens. Others answer in the negative, that what we're given in the Eucharist is only a memorial of some kind, or even a symbol without substance. In the Orthodox tradition, and the tradition of the Church throughout its first millennium and beyond, the sacrament of the Eucharist is considered just that, a true sacrament, a mystery, and St. Hilary's words still remain true. That is, Christ's words -- made so explicit to us in this text -- are taken as true, but accepted as mystically true, without effort to explain how this is so or how God makes it so. It is akin to trying to find an explanation for the many "signs" reported in the Gospel. How does water turn to wine? How could Christ have walked in the water? We may well ask ourselves those same questions, and come to the same conclusions. Either we conclude they didn't happen, or we can find a sort of rational explanation, or we can accept that these are signs of one who has "come down from heaven" and so include a mystical reality we can't fully explain, of which we don't have intimate hands-on knowledge of its workings. We don't participate in it in the same level as the Son who has seen the Father and who is sent by the Father. However, in today's reading, He quite solemnly assures us that we also may be included in this communion, through faith (as He has said here in chapter 6) and through the mystery of the Eucharist. He solemnly affirms for us that this is given for us, that His sacrifice is the ultimate and final sacrifice, which feeds us and creates communion with us. For myself, only a mystical explanation will do, for how else are we to understand this? We recall Jesus' words to Nicodemus, the believing Pharisee, here in John's Gospel, in chapter 3, as Jesus taught him about Holy Baptism, another sacrament of mystery. Nicodemus asked about rebirth in the Spirit, "How can these things be?" Jesus replied, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" In today's reading, we are given one of these "earthly things" by Jesus, the teaching regarding His body and blood, prefiguring the Eucharist, and indirectly foretelling of His Crucifixion, death, and Resurrection. These are things given to us here on earth, "earthly things," and tell of the sacrament of the Eucharist. But how exactly this happens we aren't given, except that it is also, like Baptism, and like Christ's birth as the human Jesus to the human Mary, made possible through the participation of the Spirit, as well as Father and Son. Of the "heavenly things" we don't know, it is wise (again, in my estimation) to offer the answer that we don't know. In the fullness of time, as all things become fully a part of the communion of which Christ speaks, perhaps we will know. St. Paul writes, "Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28); and also, "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known" (1 Corinthians 13:12. Let us remember that all of Christ's teachings in our recent readings began with His encouragement to the people, "Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures
to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God
the Father has set His seal on Him." When they asked what they should do to work the works of God, He began speaking about faith, belief in Him, as work. The sacraments we understand through faith, through a kind of perception that isn't simply about intellectual perceptions nor physical perceptions, but is experienced in a different way -- however, that also incorporates all that we are and our experience even of our earthly lives. Sacrament works in this place, where we are "all" involved, but also including a different type of perception. It is rooted in trust, but accepting of mystery. To participate in sacrament, in prayer, in worship, even in faith, with a mind open to this experience of faith and its mystical reality, is how we walk with Him, how we can come to know what He teaches. It is a journey of mystical communion that begins "in a mirror, dimly," with its fullness "face to face," and He asks us to take that journey throughout our lives.
