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 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 form 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."

 

- John 6:41–51 

 

Recently we read that, after He fed five thousand men (and more women and children), the people sought to make Jesus king by force.  Jesus sent the disciples away in a boat, and later caught up to them, walking on the water.  The people followed Him to Capernaum across the Sea of Galilee, realizing that He had gone from the place of the feeding.  He began to teach them, "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."  Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."  Therefore they said to Him, "What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You?  What work will You do?  Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"  Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."  Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always."  And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life.  He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.  But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.  All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.  For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.  This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.  And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."

 

  The Jews 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 form the Father comes to Me.  Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father."  Here Jesus makes one of His more intriguing statements about not only the relationship of Father to Son, but of the Father with human beings:  "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws Him."  Although He makes clear that it is only He who is from God and has seen the Father, those people who come to Him have heard and learned from the Father in some mystical way.

 

 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."  Here Christ becomes even more explicit regarding Himself as the bread of life, the living bread which came down from heaven, as He has hinted throughout this discourse.  This last verse and the ones which follow reveal the Mystical Supper of the New Testament Church, my study Bible comments.  The eucharistic significance here is unmistakable, particularly when we consider that those first to hear the Gospel were already familiar with the events of Christ's Crucifixion, death, and Resurrection.

 

 Today's reading asks us to think about sacrifice, and what sacrifice means and is. Because, looking carefully at Christ's words, that He is the bread of life, the bread which comes down from heaven, the living bread -- is all tied up with the confirmation that this bread that He shall give is His flesh, which He shall give for the life of the world.  Christ's words tie together a story, a kind of journey, sometimes in popular culture this is referred to as a hero's journey, and is tied together with the arc of a story -- perhaps of one's life, perhaps of a myth which teaches us about ourselves and about life, and perhaps about a hero whom we know of.  In this case, the hero's journey is the journey that is at the center of our lives and even of the world, for it is the hero's journey of the One who brings us salvation -- whose heroic sacrifice is indeed even "for the life of the world."  Note how Christ does not parse or mince words, and think about what this phrase means, "for the life of the world."  He is not "pulling His punches," so to speak.  For the life of the world the Church takes to mean just that, the life of the whole world, of all of creation.  For "world" here is not the word for this world, or the earth.  It is κοσμος/kosmos (cosmos), which includes all of creation, the universe, even the angelic beings whose many ranks and tasks remain mysteries to us.  Christ's "heroic journey" of salvation, includes all of that, everything about all that we know, and is given freely so that all may have life.  Even the word for "life" here implies mystery.  For life is not limited simply to things that we perceive as alive to us and not dead.  Life in the words of Christ is used to imply a mystical continuum of the qualities of life, the abundance of life, all of which we can't know nor understand from our perspective.  Jesus will speak of life in abundance ("I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" - John 10:10), and life everlasting ("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" - John 6:27).  But while we may get hints and allusions to what exactly these terms mean, we don't really know the fullness of the life that Christ promises to us.  We don't necessarily know what that looks like, feels like, or how it manifests, because it is part of His kingdom.  Christ's miracles or signs point to that Kingdom, a reality where our normal assumptions of limits, potentials, possibilities clearly don't apply, and expectations are commonly thwarted.  Most mysterious of all is the will of God and the manifestations of God's presence, for they present themselves unannounced and often in a fullness that demands we readjust our expectations.  Really, the entire New Testament is the place where this happens, where the expectations of the people are given a shaking, new meanings, and unforeseen manifestations -- such as in today's reading.  In the readings that follow, Christ will continue to befuddle even some of His disciples, and to their consternation and disappointment, even falling away.  But we are following where our Hero leads us, where His life for us teaches us to go to follow Him, and we trust (the real root of belief) because He first loved us.

 

 

 

 

 

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 

 

We are currently reading chapter 6 of John's Gospel.  The season is Passover, and it is the second year of Christ's earthly ministry given in John's Gospel.  In this chapter, the theme of Christ as the bread of life is expanded; recently Jesus has fed five thousand men (and more women and children) in the wilderness, after which they sought to force Him to be king.  This began a series of dialogue and disputes in which Jesus has been speaking of Himself as the bread of heaven.  Yesterday we read that the Jews 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.  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."  My study Bible comments here 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, and this grants the faithful eternal life, with Christ abiding in us and us in Him, as Jesus says here.  St. Hilary of Poitiers is quoted:  "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."

 

"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.  On the whole of today's passage, my study Bible comments that its eucharistic significance is indisputable.  Christ's declaration that He is Himself the living bread that gives life is a revelation of the Mystical Supper of the New Testament Church.   It notes also that John never reports the details of the Last Supper (such as the "words of institution" recorded in Luke 22:19-20).  But here, instead, he reveals the significance and truth of these events -- events which were already known to his hearers -- by reporting Christ's own words.  

Jesus says, "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."   As we will see, Jesus will face considerable rejection for these words (in our following reading).  Just as at that time for Jesus, perhaps Christ's words here fall on ears in our day and age that are equally as unaccepting as then.  Eat His flesh?  Drink His blood?  What kind of words are these?  Are we cannibals?  What kind of language is this for us to take in?  There are those who think these words and teachings are meant only as metaphors.  Or perhaps they are merely symbolic.  But the truth is that the mind of the Church has not accepted them in these ways, then and even now (with perhaps some dissenting in more modern times).  This is because in the mind of the New Testament Church, and right from the beginning, there was understood a mystical reality that underscored all that transpired in our faith, that these words are not meant in a simple literal sense, but in a different kind of "real" sense.  For that matter, right from the beginning, the kingdom of heaven, Christ's kingdom, was not understood as a literal earthly kingdom, but as a nevertheless "real" mystical Kingdom that is present to us.  As Jesus says, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!'  For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you" (see Luke 17:20-21).  We should keep in mind that in the Greek, the "you" is clearly plural; this may be understood both as literally within you, but also as "among you."  It is best, in the Gospels, to take both meanings at the same time.  But this reality of the Kingdom that is within us is one that is not literally true in an earthly sense nor is it merely symbolic or metaphorical.  This is a Kingdom which is mystically present, in which we mystically participate through our faith, faithfulness, worship practices, prayer, and through following His commandments.  For we must understand that we, also, have parts of ourselves that are mystical in nature, and in living a eucharistic faith we are united body, soul, and spirit in participating in His Church and its sacraments.  It is also necessary perhaps to understand sacrifice in the ancient sense, as a communion meal -- with Christ Himself become the Passover once and for all, mystically and without limit always prepared and distributed to us for this depth of participation in His life, death, and Resurrection and in the life of the Church.  We are united to Him via this endlessly giving and unlimited sacrifice through which we abide in Him and He in us.  Jesus teaches about a mystical participation when He 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."  Just as we are mystically the Body of Christ in the Church, so without this understanding and perception of the mystical we will fail to understand His words and teachings and how He may live in us and we in Him.  For that takes another kind of perception, one not simply of our material senses nor simply of our intellect, but rather one which encompasses all of these and surpasses them as well.   Let us be attentive to His teachings and God's work in us.

 

 

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 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."

 

- John 6:41–51 

 

Our current readings are in chapter 6 of John's Gospel.  This chapter has eucharistic significance, with Jesus' emphasis on Himself as the bread of life which came from heaven.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus addressed the men who had previously sought to make Him king by force, after He fed them in the wilderness.  He told them, "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."  Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."  Therefore they said to Him, "What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You?  What work will You do?  Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'  Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."  Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always."  And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life.  He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.  But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.  All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.  For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.  This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day.  And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." 

 

 The Jews 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."  Here Jesus offers us an important statement about our own connection to God the Father.  He says, "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."  Significantly, He taught the same thing to the disciples upon the confession of St. Peter that Jesus is the Christ, as reported in St. Matthew's Gospel:   "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 16:17).

 

"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."   Here, Jesus makes clear the eucharistic significance of His statements teaching that He is the bread of life, the living bread which comes down from heaven.  In our following readings, Jesus' continuing discourse will affirmatively emphasize this even more starkly.

Jesus says, "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."   Here Jesus begins to make entirely clear a reference to what is coming, to His Crucifixion.  More powerfully, He makes clear that He is not simply speaking metaphorically, but even -- and additionally -- He is speaking quite literally of His flesh.  Moreover, once again, nothing which Christ does is absent from the Father -- which means that nothing is done apart from love as its basis.  That is, the love of God the Father and the love of the Son, giving His flesh for the life of the world.  As we have repeatedly emphasized over the past few readings and commentary, none of what Christ does is separable from love, and indeed, our understanding of love itself.  This is because many things may pass for love which are actually done in quite a selfish manner.   But for us to understand and to grow in learning love, it is discipleship which teaches this.  It is in John's Gospel that Jesus issues to us His final and new command, "Love one another as I have loved you" (John 13:34-35).  It is in loving one another that the world can understand that we are Christ's disciples, He says.  Here in today's reading, Jesus tells us that this love will extend to giving His flesh for the life of the world.  We know this is love because He tells us this is so.  Again, in this Gospel, He will teach us, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends" (John 15:13).  And finally, it is also here in John's Gospel, that we have been told, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).  So, while Jesus begins His quite explicit discourse on Himself as the bread of life, and the powerful, visceral meaning that takes on regarding His sacrifice He will make on the Cross, and eventually in the Eucharist, let us take in today all the ways in which what He teaches conveys to us His love, and the Father's love.  For we are meant to continue in this understanding of and practice of God's love, extended through us as disciples.  For without it, He will indicate, we are not His disciples.  Let us take into account the significance of this saying and all the ways it teaches us how we are to be understood as Christians.

 

 

Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life

 

 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?"  When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you?  What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?  It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.  But there are some of you who do not believe."  For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.  And He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."  From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.  Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?"  But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?"  He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.

 

- John 6:60–71 

 

Yesterday we read that the religious leaders in the synagogue at Capernaum quarreled among themselves because of Christ's teaching regarding His flesh as the bread of life, 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.   

 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?"  When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you?  What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?  It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.  But there are some of you who do not believe."  For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.  And He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."  From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.  Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?"  My study Bible comments that even His disciples took Christ's teaching on His Body and Blood as a hard saying, and many consequently walked with Him no more.  There are still those who reject Christ's words regarding the sacramental eating of His Body and drinking of His Blood, and so do not "walk" in this teaching.  My study Bible continues, saying that because of the difficulty of grasping the depth of this Mystery, many try to define its nature rationally, or else to explain away the words of Jesus completely, giving them a solely metaphorical meaning.  But, it says, either extreme is in fact dubious.  If we reject this sacramental teaching then we reject the witness of the Scriptures and the unanimous teaching of the Church throughout history. 

But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?"  He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.  Here we witness Simon Peter's confession of faith in the Gospel of John, that Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the living God."  My study Bible comments that Peter's understanding of the identity of Jesus defines Christianity.  This comprehension prevents Christianity from being seen as simply another philosophical system or path of spirituality, because it names Christ as the one and only Son of the living God.  Hence it excludes all compromise with other religious systems.  He Himself is the Savior.  Once again, John's Gospel emphasizes Jesus' capacity to know people, as part of the divine wisdom present in Him, when He speaks of the future betrayal by Judas Iscariot.

In today's reading, my study Bible comments on the understanding of the sacrament of Christ's body and blood in the Eucharist.  What we might call "sacramental thinking" permeates the Church, and has done so from the earliest times of Christianity.  In a first century teaching manuscript called Didache (meaning in Greek, the Teaching) we may read the celebration of the Liturgy referred to as "the Eucharist," and so indicating its centrality to faith and worship.  In yesterday's reading and commentary, I quoted from this article by Fr. Stephen Freeman, a priest in the Orthodox Church of America, regarding the nature of sacraments.  Fr. Stephen wrote of the sacraments of the Church, including the Eucharist, "In each of these we observe that God has taken up an ordinary action and made it a means of grace. The sacraments of the Church are each, in their own way, given to us as a means of communion with God."  This notion of communion with God is so important that our Gospels are permeated with it.  Christ chooses disciples who will live with Him, observing all things He does, learning from Him through a shared communion and participation in His ministry.  It is a Person-to-person communion, if you will, comprising both individuals and the community of disciples as a whole.  In St. Paul's writing, this communion extends beyond this world, to the "great cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1), consisting of the faithful who have passed and also the angels of God.  Fr. Freeman elaborates that grace itself, in the Orthodox understanding, is the "energies of God."  That is, God in God's action of mercy, reaching toward us, and active in our world, thus present to us in a way that we might receive even though we cannot grasp God in God's fullness of being.  So, this notion of sacrament that Christ gives us in communion, that is made possible through His sacrifice on the Cross (His suffering, death, and Resurrection) is something we must accept as an action of God given to us for the deeper communion that saves, that gives us the saving faith that makes life with God, in this "everlasting" sense of life, possible for human beings.  Ultimately, as Fr. Freeman, explains, grace is love, God in action seeking to bring us closer and deeper, even in the sense of the life of the Kingdom, and its eternal or everlasting reality.  Therefore the notion of sacramental thinking -- of that through which, though consisting of "earthly" matter, is imbued with something greater than itself, made possible through the divine grace and action of God, so that we may partake of it, participate in this life, experience it.  In the Gospel according to St. Matthew, when Peter makes His confession of faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus tells Him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 16:17), and this revelation of faith, through God the Father, becomes another example of grace made possible for us, which Jesus has referred to in our present chapter of John by quoting from Isaiah:  "And they shall all be taught by God"  (see Saturday's reading).  In today's reading, Jesus reiterates a similar thought, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."  If we fail to grasp that God can be active in the world, even working in and dwelling within and among us, then we fail to grasp our faith, so central is this understanding to Christianity and the teachings of Christ.  Even in the Incarnation itself, it is grace, God's love, reaching to us for deeper communion.  In the Eucharist, the material things of earthly life become instruments of that grace, giving us a depth of communion conferred by God, for this is how holiness works.  In this sense, the world can become a sacrament, as Fr. Freeman writes.  Works done in the name of faith or devotion, a garden dedicated to the glory of God, an act of beauty -- to see the work of God in the beauty of the world, in a life lived righteously in relation to any or all of it, is to come to a deeper sense of faith and God's love.  In today's reading, Jesus teaches about the power of Spirit to confer life, that even His spoken word has this same quality of the living reality of Spirit, of sacrament and grace:  "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life."  St. Peter, through his faith, understands this, saying, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life."  A world with the kingdom of God stripped away from its meanings and lived experience bears no relation to the sacramental picture of life Christ offers us, in which God participates with us and within us, drawing us into deeper communion.  Let us recover who we are in this sense, and where it places us in the grand scheme of creation, for in the story of Jesus, God has come to search for us, to save us and take us back to our true "home" and the fullness of true life, as only God could offer us -- even today, in the here and the now of our world.  Let us be thankful!

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 religious leaders in Capernaum 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."  My study Bible comments here 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.  So we receive the grace of His sacrificial offering by coming to Him in faith and by receiving the Eucharist in faith.  This is what He indicates here, coming upon the sign of feeding the people with bread in the wilderness (see this reading from the beginning of this chapter in John's Gospel).  To eat His flesh and drink His blood therefore is a reference to the Eucharist, which grants the faithful eternal life.  Thus, as Jesus says here, He abides in us and we abide in Him.   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."  

"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, as He has done throughout His discourse in this chapter, Jesus returns to the theme of His unity with the Father.  He insists that His life is thoroughly dependent upon the Father, so those who will feed on Him will live because of Him.  He is the bread which came down from heaven, and therefore the bread of eternal life.

It is perhaps important to recall here the history of the heresies of the Church, particularly in its early centuries and the various Ecumenical Councils which were called on account of them.  Many scholars and theologians will teach us that each heresy, in fact, involved a diminution of the divinity of Christ -- and in particular, therefore, His unity with the Father which He so emphasizes in this chapter of John's Gospel.  Throughout the past several readings, Jesus has spoken to us of the essential reality and power of faith.  But that faith only contains its power to work in us because of His unity with the Father (and the Holy Spirit) and that He can extend this unity to us.  Through the Eucharist, we may participate in this divine life, through the "bread of heaven" we may also, by grace, join in this communion as we are able.   As Jesus repeats over and over again, the life that He offers is a life that is inextinguishable and unending.  Therefore if we are really going to pay attention to His words, we must come to understand that as tempting as it might be for people to believe Christ was simply a very holy man, or a good person with good things to teach us, that is inadequate in terms of His actual preaching and teaching.  In this chapter of John's Gospel, as the quotation from St. Hilary of Poitiers indicates, it is made clear without reservation that all of this is possible through the power of the Father working in Christ, and through Christ's work in the world, His Passion and Resurrection.  Through these things the Eucharist comes to us as "flesh and blood" in this tangible spiritual sense.  As we discussed in Monday's reading, when Jesus speaks of faith as the "work of God" we may do, He's speaking of something much more substantial than a code we ascribe to, or a belief we may have.  Faith is, instead, the rock upon which He would build His Church, and it includes even the Father working in us ("No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day" -- see yesterday's reading, above).  How the Father can participate in us, even as we participate in the life of Christ, and He in us, is and remains a great mystery and paradox.  We can't even begin to explore the nature of the divine without wondering how a human being could be in communion with God without stumbling upon definitions and the limits of our nature.  But let us consider at once that the distinguishing character of God the Father, as shown in Christ ("He who has seen Me has seen the Father" - John 14:9), is love.  As God is love (1 John 4:8), so we understand that it is in the nature of love to transcend boundaries and work even across time and space and dimensions we can't understand.  It is love and devotion that characterize Christ's relationship to the Father.  It is within the fullness of this love that He makes His sacrifice on the Cross -- not only love for us, but also out of love for the Father who sent Him in turn, because the Father loves us, and loves the world.  Ultimately, no matter what messes we make of our world and our lives, it is the true nature of creation to be solidly couched in a Creator who is love and who creates from love and loves us and all the world.  Jesus has come, as He has said in the conclusion to yesterday's reading, to give His flesh "for the life of the world."  When we abide in Him, we abide in love, and it is that love which  gives life to the world. 

 

 

I am the living bread which came down from heaven

 

 The Jews 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 one 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." 

 

- John 6:41–51 

 

In yesterday's reading, Jesus taught the people who had sought to make Him king, "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."  Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."  Therefore they said to Him, "What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You?  What work will You do?  Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'  Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."  Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always."  And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life.  He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.  But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.  All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.  For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.  This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.  And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."

 

  The Jews 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 one 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."  Augustine comments on this passage that Jesus is telling the religious leaders ("the Jews" - referring to the leadership)  that when Jesus speaks of faith, He is not speaking of those forced to be drawn, but of those to whom Christ is revealed who long to know Him as one longs to know the truth. 

 

"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 Eucharistic significance of this passage is clear, and will continue in the following reading.  As the living bread, the bread of life, Christ Himself becomes that which we "take in" through the Eucharist, and becomes a part of us, giving us His life.  And this life, for which He will sacrifice His flesh (His earthly life as Jesus) is given for the life of the world.  

What does it mean that Jesus is the bread of life?  Jesus says that "he who believes in Me has everlasting life."  In yesterday's reading, we read that Jesus taught, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."  If faith is defined as the work of God which we may do, then this "bread of life" is the bread our work is for.  It is what feeds us something necessary to us, this life that supersedes and adds to the life of the flesh that we know in an earthly sense.  For this "work" we must be drawn by the Father, so that Christ is revealed to us through us through hearts in which there remains a deep and mysterious desire for the truth of this revelation, to know Him.  Since this is something known to the Father, it seems that it is a deeply mysterious process indeed, as God the Father -- and therefore Christ and the Spirit also -- know us at depths within ourselves which we don't understand.  The process of faith is something in which we find ourselves responding to what we don't yet understand.  We are drawn by just this process that Christ names as the Father drawing us.  This process is the thing to which Jesus refers when He quotes the prophets, saying, "And they shall all be taught by God" (Isaiah 54:13).  He says, "Therefore one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me."  And He makes clear that this is a mystical reality:  "Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father."  It is only Christ, the Son, who has truly "seen" the Father, who can behold the Father as One who is also God.  But clearly there is a place deep within ourselves where Christ says the Father draws us, and those who are drawn are capable of this faith, of the revelation of Christ.  If we think about our faith, it is so often true that our faith evolves and grows within us.  Christ continually presents the experience of faith as a journey, with Himself as the road upon which we journey into a deeper communion with God ("I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" - John 14:6).  But for today, let us consider the "work of God" given to us, that of faith, and the "bread of life" which Christ can give to us:  Himself.  Through the voluntary sacrifice of His worldly life, this everlasting life of which Christ speaks can triumph, and it can be distributed to us who approach in faith.  Let us consider what it means that we are given the work of God, for which the Father draws us, in order to reveal to us the Son -- and the life that is given to us in this communion, even the life that grows in us from the living bread which came down from heaven.

 

 

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"

 

 The Jews 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."

 

- John 6:41-54 

 

John's chapter 6 began with the fourth sign of John's Gospel:  the feeding of a multitude.  Yesterday we read that Jesus taught the people who followed Him to Capernaum:  "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."  Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."  Therefore they said to Him, "What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You?  What work will You do?  Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'  Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."  Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always."  And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life.  He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.  But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.  All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.  For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.  This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.  And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."

 

The Jews 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'?"  We recall that in John's Gospel, the term the Jews is most often used to represent hostile religious leaders, possibly local leaders of the synagogue.  Here He is in Capernaum of Galilee, where there are many who are likely to know His extended family in Nazareth.  But the irony is that these people do not know the true story of His birth, nor do they hear His words regarding His Father.

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."  Once again, Jesus returns to the closeness of the relationship between Himself and the Father.  So deep is the relationship that not only is it the Father who sent Him, but no one can come to Christ unless the Father draws that person to Christ.  St. Hilary of Poitiers sums up Jesus teaching this way:  "There is no approach to the Father except through Christ. But there is also no approach to Christ, unless the Father draws us."  Therefore, not only does the Father share and give everything to the Son, but the Father also draws Christ's followers to Christ.  Therefore the Father works deep within us as well, and is "all in all."

"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."  The Father draws us to Christ, the only One who is from God and has truly seen and knows the Father in the Father's fullness.  Christ is the bread of life to whom the Father would draw those who hunger and thirst for the everlasting life offered through grace.  My study Bible reminds us again here that the whole of John's chapter 6 reflects the story of the Exodus, but under the new covenant of Christ.  In the Exodus, God fed God's people manna and gave them drink from a miraculous water source (Exodus 16:1-17:7).  Here, Christ declares Himself to be the true bread that has come 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."  Once again, as in yesterday's reading and commentary, we note that Christ does not say He gives for the life of human beings only, but for the life of the world.  In Greek, this word is κόσμος/kosmos, meaning the whole of the created order, the universe and everything in it.

 

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."  These verses begin a new section of chapter 6, which has a clear eucharistic significance, tying the teachings that have come regarding the bread of heaven to the Mystical Supper of the New Testament Church.  This theme shall be continued in tomorrow's lectionary reading.

St. Augustine has a great deal of commentary on these passages from John's chapter 6, as we also noted in yesterday's reading and commentary.  In today's passages from chapter 6, Jesus speaks of His closeness to the Father, but also how that tie to the Father extends into the relationship between the faithful and Christ as well.  He says, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day."  St. Augustine comments here that this is the doctrine of grace:  none comes unless they are drawn.  But this is a mysterious process, to some extent predicated on our own internal hunger of the soul for this particular bread of heaven, or bread of life.  We come by the gift of faith.  St. Augustine says that the soul is drawn also by love, and we are drawn even by delight, quoting Psalm 37:4:  "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart."  He writes, "There is a certain craving of the heart to which that bread of heaven is sweet. . . . how much more boldly ought we to say that a person is drawn to Christ when he delights in the truth, when he delights in blessedness, delights in righteousness, delights in everlasting life?  Do not the bodily senses have their pleasures, and the soul its? . . . Give me one who loves, who longs, who burns, who sighs for the source of his being and his eternal home, and he will know what I mean."  Faith, then, in the words of St. Augustine and the experience of uncountable numbers of people throughout these centuries, depends upon so much, involves so much -- but perhaps none more so than a true desire for this delight in truth and in the love which springs from the Father, for, as John writes in his first Epistle, God is love (see 1 John 4:8).  When Peter makes his confession of faith, Matthew reports Jesus' response, so consistent with today's teachings in John:  "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven" (see Matthew 16:16-17).  May we all be blessed with this hunger for truth, for the delight we may take in what He offers, the life that is in the love and truth of God, and know what it is to be filled.

 

 

Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life

 

 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?"  When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you?  What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?  It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.  But there are some of you who do not believe."  For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.  And He said, Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."  From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.  Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?"  But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?"  He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.

 

- John 6:60-71 

 

Yesterday we read that the religious leaders in the synagogue quarreled among themselves regarding Jesus' teaching, 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.

 

Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?"  When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you?  What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?  It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.  But there are some of you who do not believe."  For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.  And He said, Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."  From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.  Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?"   My study bible comments that even Christ's disciples took His teaching on His Body and Blood as a hard saying, and many walked with Him no more.   To this day, there are those who reject Christ's own words in the Gospel which concern the sacramental eating of His Body and drinking of His Blood, and therefore do not walk in His teaching.  My study further comments that because of the difficulty of grasping the depth of this Mystery, many attempt to either define its nature rationally or to explain away Christ's words completely -- that is, giving them a purely metaphorical meaning.  Either extreme is dubious.  To reject this sacramental teaching is to reject the witness of the Scriptures and the unanimous teaching of the Church throughout history.  From the earliest times of the Church, the word Eucharist (its root meaning to "give thanks" in Greek) came to refer both to the Liturgy and to the sacrament of Holy Communion.  Before the end of the first century, the Didache refers to the celebration of the Liturgy as "the Eucharist."  In the year AD 150, St. Justin writes, "This food we call 'Eucharist,' of which no one is allowed to partake except one who believes the things we teach are true, and has received the washing [Holy Baptism] for forgiveness of sins and for rebirth, and who lives as Christ commanded us."  According to St. Justin, the Church accepts "that the food consecrated by the word of prayer which comes from Him is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus."

 

 Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?"  But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?"  He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.   This "hard saying" (see above) is so difficult to grasp that many of Christ's disciples left Him.  So He turned to the twelve.  In other Gospels, we can read the description of Peter's confession of faith (see Matthew 16:13-20, Luke 9:18-20, Mark 8:27-30).  My study bible affirms that Peter's answer to Christ's question, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, excludes compromise with other religious systems, and renders the Christian faith from being seen as merely another philosophical system or path of spirituality.  It says that Jesus' question is the ultimate one in Scripture and in all theology, for how it is answered will define the universe.  Christ is not simply another king or prophet, but the long-awaited Savior.

 

 In the Synoptic Gospels, Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ comes during a discussion, prompted by Jesus, about who people generally say He is.  And then Jesus asks the twelve, "But who do you say that I am?" prompting Peter's confession.  But here, the text is slightly different.  Peter says, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life."  John's Gospel gives us this powerful vision of Christ's words and meanings themselves, and of the effect which His words themselves have on people.  When the religious leaders send temple officers to arrest Jesus during the Feast of Tabernacles, they return empty-handed, and all they can say for themselves is, "No man ever spoke like this Man!" (see John 7:45-46).  We are repeatedly given a sense of the power and the life of Jesus' word itself, and nowhere more clearly than in the words of Peter here.  In John's 8th chapter, Jesus says to the leaders, "I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him" (my italics).  Further along in the same discussion, He tells them, "Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.  Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?  He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God" (again, italics are mine).   In today's reading, Jesus says explicitly, "The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life."  The emphasis in John's Gospel is powerfully on the word of God; that is on the meanings, authority, and power itself of the words given to Christ by the Father to speak to the world.  In future chapters, Jesus will become even more explicit regarding the word He gives and the Father who gives that word to Him to say and to teach to the world.  But this Gospel also gives us the effects of Christ's word in those who believe, and that is best described by Peter's response:  "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life."   From the beginning, John's Gospel has taught us that Christ Himself is the Word, the Logos (John 1:1).  And here, even as Jesus has just finished teaching about the Eucharist, and the mystical presence of His body and blood, Peter gives us the words that tie together the Eucharist's promise of eternal life (John 6:54-55) with the very word of Jesus:  "You have the words of eternal life."   We are given powerful hints of something similar in Luke's Gospel, when Luke reports the experience of the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35).  After they realize the Stranger with whom they were speaking was Christ, they ask themselves, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?"  This is the very response to the word of Christ.  And in the same story of the road to Emmaus, it's coupled with another regarding the Eucharist, that "He was known to them in the breaking of the bread."  So here is the question for all of the readers of this blog:  How do you respond to Christ's words?  Do they hold fire for your heart?  Are they the words of eternal life?  Let us consider what we're given, the power in the words given from the Father, words of spirit and life -- and their power 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

 

 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.

You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me

 

 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world.  He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."

The Pharisees therefore said to Him, "You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not true."  Jesus answered and said to them, "Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from and where I am going.  You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.  And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me.  It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true.  I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me."  

 

Then they said to Him, "Where is Your Father?"  Jesus answered, "You know neither Me nor My Father.  If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also."  These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come.

 

- John 8:12–20 

 

 Yesterday we read that on that last day, the great day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."  But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.  Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, "Truly this is the Prophet."  Others said, "This is the Christ."  But some said, "Will the Christ come out of Galilee?  Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?"  So there was a division among the people because of Him.  Now some of them wanted to take Him, but no one laid hands on Him.  Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why have you not brought Him?"  The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this Man!"  Then the Pharisees answered them, "Are you also deceived?  Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him?  But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed."  Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them) said to them, "Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?"  They answered and said to him, "Are you also from Galilee?  Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee."   The lectionary then skips over the story of the woman taken in adultery; see John 7:53-8:11.

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world.  He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."    My study bible explains the context of Christ's remark.  At this time on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the great lamps were lit at its conclusion.  This was a gigantic menorah lamp in the outer courtyard of the temple, which when illumined made the entire region of that part of the city of Jerusalem bright as daylight, according to witnesses of the period.  In this statement, my study bible says, Christ is declaring Himself to be the fulfillment and the divine object of all celebrations of light.  In the Scriptures, God the Father Himself is light (John 1:4-9, 1 John 1:5), an attribute which God bestows on God's followers (Matthew 5:14, Philippians 2:15).  Christ will confirm this claim when He will perform the great sign of opening the eyes of a man born blind in John's next chapter (John 9:1-7; see especially verse 5).  

The Pharisees therefore said to Him, "You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not true."  Jesus answered and said to them, "Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from and where I am going.  You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.  And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me.  It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true.  I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me."   Once again, Christ gives witnesses to His identity.   Jewish law required two witnesses for a valid testimony.   In chapter 5, He gave four witnesses:  John the Baptist, the works or signs He does which the Father has given to Him to do, the Father who testifies to Christ, and the Scriptures (see this reading).  Here in today's reading, in Christ's response to the Pharisees, He gives two witnesses.  He bears witness of Himself, and the Father who sent Him also bears witness to His identity as Son. 

Then they said to Him, "Where is Your Father?"  Jesus answered, "You know neither Me nor My Father.  If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also."  These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come.   My study bible comments here that because the Son and the Father share the same divine nature, one cannot be known apart from the other (see John 14:7-11).  Christ's hour, once again, will be the time when He is glorified:  His Passion, death, and Resurrection.  The temple officers are still unable to arrest Him (see yesterday's reading, above).

It's interesting to think about witnessing.  What constitutes a witness?  Repeatedly in John's Gospel, we are given language that comes from the realm of the courtroom or legal system.  It gives us a sense that there is a deep focus on the meaning of judgment, and on the importance of Christ as being given the authority of Judge due to His Incarnation as Son of Man ("For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man" - John 5:26-27).   Judicial language plays a great role throughout the Gospel:  witnessing, testimony, Jesus' characterization of the Holy Spirit which will be sent as the "Paraclete" or advocate, as in one who advocates for defense in a courtroom.   But what is testimony and witnessing?  Most often we say that anyone proclaiming the good things God has done for them is witnessing or testifying.  But we should also keep in mind that for the early Church, the word "martyr" came from the word for "witness" in Greek.  To testify in Greek is "martyreo/μαρτυρέω."  So to testify in this case implies a deeper rendering of the truth to the world, and that includes the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the truth of His identity, and the true word He gives to us all.  It also includes the suffering undergone for the sake of the truth, following Christ Himself who is called the Faithful and True Witness (Revelation 1:5, 3:14).  So testimony is related to something much deeper than a historical event or something perceived only with our physical senses.  It is related to what is much deeper in the heart, a timeless truth that is recognized through our spiritual senses, and relates to the fact that we aren't simply flesh.  To be a human being is to be body, soul, and spirit, and to have a heart and mind that work together.  This truth asks of us to perceive with the deepest parts of ourselves, that which reaches to the heart of love and can accept that truth of the things which Jesus reveals.  For that, He says, we must love God, because only then can we appreciate and know the truths of God He reveals for us.  This requires a communion, a prayerful life, a contact with that which lives in this eternal place.  IJesus says, "You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.  And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me."  Let us learn what it is to ask for the judgment which God gives us, that which discerns not according to the flesh, and is capable of prayerful hearing.  This is what truthful witnessing is all about.