For four weeks now we have been reading from the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. And for us as Catholics, is one of the most important chapters in all of the scriptures, because in this chapter is the foundation for our teaching and belief in the “True Presence” of the Eucharist – that Jesus himself is truly present, body, blood, soul and divinity, in the Eucharist that we consume, so that we really do eat his flesh and drink his blood. It is the one thing that sets us apart from other Christian traditions; it is the central focus, the source and summit, the very core of our belief.
This chapter begins with a story of which we are all very familiar: the feeding of the five-thousand, where Jesus fed the large crowd with only five loaves and two fish, and had enough left over to fill twelve wicker baskets. Then Jesus teaches the crowd with a speech that is referred to as “The Bread of Life Discourse” in which Jesus calls himself the bread of life, the true bread that comes down from heaven. The manna that their ancestors ate in the desert during the Exodus was certainly miraculous, but it was only temporary. The bread that Jesus gives, which is himself, is not only life giving, but is eternal.
The discourse reaches its high point in today’s gospel reading where Jesus definitively states that we must eat his flesh and drink his blood or we shall not have life within us, for whoever does eat his flesh and drink his blood has eternal life, and will be raised up on the last day. This leads to the question by the Jews asking “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Notice that Jesus doesn’t say, “Oh I’m sorry, I was speaking metaphorically. That’s not what I really meant.” Jesus doesn’t mince words at all. He doesn’t back down on what he means. In fact, in this section of the discourse, Jesus mentions eating this bread (his flesh) eight times!
But why does Jesus insist that we must eat his flesh and drink his blood? And what does he mean when he says that by doing this, we will have eternal life? If we look back to the first Passover with Moses and the Israelites in Egypt, we should recall that before they were to leave Egypt, each household had to sacrifice a pure, unblemished lamb, and to put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts and lintels of the houses, so the angel of death would pass over their houses. But that wasn’t all; in order for the Passover to be complete, they had to eat the lamb. And how did John the Baptist introduce Jesus at the beginning of the Gospel of John? “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
Now, try to picture yourself as a first century Jew listening to Jesus speak these words. Jesus tells us that whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood will have eternal life. He does not mean this symbolically. He means this literally. That is why the Jews quarreled among themselves and asked, “How can this be?” First of all, it didn’t make sense. The people were reacting naturally to a statement that was completely beyond their understanding.
This could be one reason why so many different Christian religions don’t believe in the True Presence. It’s completely beyond our understanding. How can this be? How can it be that I can say to my wife, “I give you all of my love.” And I can also say to each of my children individually, “I give you all of my love.” And yet there is still more love to share. It’s beyond my understanding. But I believe it to be true.
But the Jews were also reacting this way because of their religious laws. The Jewish faith taught and believed that blood was the source of life; it was absolutely forbidden to drink the blood of animals, or eat any meat that still had the animal’s blood in it. From the Old Testament book of Leviticus, it states that “The life is in the blood.”
There were also some pagan rituals that practiced drinking the blood of animals, because they believed that by drinking certain animals’ blood, you would receive the power and strength, the life of that animal. So the reason that it is forbidden in the Old Testament is the very reason it is commanded in the New. God did not want a person to have animal life. His intention for us is not that we would become animals. His intention is for us to become sons of God.
If we look back to the beginning when God created Adam, God breathed his own divine life into Adam’s nostrils to give him life. His plan was for mankind to live forever in communion with Him. God did not mean for us to die – he did not create death. But because of original sin, that divine life was rejected, and death entered into the world, and became part of our fallen nature.
God desires our communion with Him; he wants us to share his divine life (after all, he made us in His own image and likeness). He wants us to share his divine life so much so that he became one of us and gave himself up to death so that we could eat his flesh and drink his blood. So now that the blood of the Son of God, the divine blood, becomes available for us, unless we eat the flesh of the Son of God and drink His blood, we do not have the divine life!
So what does it mean to eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood and to have the divine life? This is where the challenge lies. As I mentioned earlier, in ancient times, to consume a victim in a sacrifice is in some way to receive life from the very victim that has been sacrificed. When we participate in the Mass, we participate in the sacrifice of Jesus. We are not just witnesses or spectators. And so when we come forward to the altar and eat his flesh and drink his blood, in a mystical and mysterious but very real way, we become Jesus, the Body of Christ.
Saint Thomas Aquinas says that “Since it was the will of God’s only begotten Son that men should share in his divinity, he assumed our nature in order that by becoming man he might make men gods.” God became one of us so that we might become one with Him.
Every time we come to Mass, every time we receive communion, we have an encounter with Christ. But do we just do this out of habit, or do we allow this encounter to have a profound effect on us, to change and transform us? We are called to change and be transformed every time we come to Mass and receive Communion. We must change our lifestyle and be open to whatever Christ is calling us. This doesn’t mean we need to quit our jobs and become missionaries, or anything that radical, although there are some who are called to that. But if you’re aware of any sin in your life, stop the sin, receive the sacrament of reconciliation, and do penance, so we might receive Communion worthily. Treat all people no matter who they are with dignity as children of God. Study the scriptures and the teachings of the Church.
But make no mistake – if we’re not open to it, then eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking his blood will produce little fruit; it’s not magic.
Listen to the words of Saint Paul in our second reading today: “Watch carefully how you live… Do not continue on in ignorance, but try to understand what is the will of the Lord.” We must understand what our faith believes and teaches. We have to be able to profess it and be willing and able to defend it when necessary.
The Eucharist is our giving thanks to God; and it’s a thanksgiving that only becomes real when we imitate Christ’s life of self-giving. So the Eucharist, then, goes beyond the walls of this church building and it characterizes our lives as Christians. The greatest thanks we can give to God for this wonderful gift of himself is to give of ourselves to others to build up the Body of Christ.
What does it mean to eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood? This is a question that each one of us must ask, and the answer is difficult to take because it involves more that Jesus’ self giving; it requires us to give of our very lives.