The Bread of Life - 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, B

Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/081918.cfm

Today, Jesus tells us something shocking.  “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.”  It’s not “Unless you do good things and make a decent living,” or “Unless you achieve success and become famous” or even “Unless you follow the commandments perfectly and make acceptable contributions to your church” – but “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood.”  This is the climax of John chapter 6, the Bread of Life Discourse which we have been reading, and we realize that Jesus is speaking these words to us today just as he did for those first listening. I know that it’s easy for me to become used to this gift of the Eucharist and not appreciate it.  In fact, I feel like at many Masses I attend, I may recognize conceptually that this is the Body and Blood of Christ, but only once in a while, I become re-shocked at the incredible reality that is present here.  With today’s Gospel, it’s a perfect opportunity for us to receive what Jesus gives us in a new way.  

What did the first century Jews hear when Jesus said this?  The Gospels record this discourse in the Greek language, and in Greek, there are two words for “flesh”: there’s “soma,” which represents the body as a whole and emphasizes its clean structure, and “sarx,” which represents specifically the carnal and animal flesh.  Which word does Jesus use?  “Sarx” – the bloody flesh of an animal.  Even more, the word we hear as “eat,” in the Greek would be more literally “gnaw.”  “Unless you gnaw the carnal flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.”  No wonder many of those listening walked away from Jesus hearing this!

Thus, we wonder, why did Jesus use this language?  He does so to emphasize for us how radical his gift of self will be.  When God made Adam and Eve, he created them body and soul, fully integrated, freed from suffering, and blessed with grace and immortality.  However, with the first sin, our first parents turned away from God and lost their health and life.  Their bodies and souls became broken.  But the Lord still cared for His people.  This is most evident when the Son of God, being sent by the Father and guided by the Holy Spirit, took on a human body and soul, walking on this earth, eating, drinking, sleeping, working, forming friendships, and proclaiming the Gospel to those he met.  Jesus let himself endure the suffering of hatred, mockery, betrayal, and death, and he let his body and soul become broken to be united with our brokenness.  His flesh was torn apart, and his blood was spilled.  Yet through the power of his resurrection, he conquered this brokenness through his own body, re-giving our bodies and souls grace and immortality.  

What’s also incredible is that he doesn’t just leave this gift in the past 2,000 years ago but makes it present for us in a real, physical act: through eating and drinking.  We feed our bodies with food all of the time; sometimes this food is good for us, sometimes it’s not so good and may even be harmful.  But what if we had the perfect food to heal our sickness, help us endure suffering, and to triumph over death?  This is what Jesus gives us – His own body and blood, uniting us with Himself.  This also shows us how close Jesus wants to come to us – if he comes this close in our bodies, think of how close he also comes to us in our souls.  

And we also see God’s creative genius in the Eucharist: if every time we came to Mass, actual flesh and blood appeared on the altar, I doubt we’d have many people here!  But God, the creator of all things, does something that the Church has come to call “transubstantiation” – that with the words that Father says, the substance of bread changes into Christ’s flesh while keeping the appearance and taste of bread, and the substance of wine changes into Christ’s blood while keeping the appearance and taste of wine.  This way, we aren’t grossed out but are encouraged to receive Jesus into our bodies and souls.  

There are countless stories throughout the Church’s life that show the evidence of the effects of the Eucharist: how lives are changed and saints are made.  If this were simply bread and wine, I’m sure the Church would have caught on at some point and just declared it a symbol.  But the fact of 2,000 years of continuous worship in the Mass shows us that this is a tremendous and real gift that we receive today.

Once in a great while, God chooses to confirm this through a miraculous sign.  There are a good number of stories of Eucharistic miracles: one of my favorites comes from Lanciano, Italy.  In the 8th century, a priest was celebrating Mass and was doubting that transubstantiation occurred.  At the moment of consecration, the bread turned into an actual piece of flesh, and the wine into real blood.  Now, the amazing part is that over the next 1,200 years, this flesh and blood was kept at the church at Lanciano, and it did not decay nor decompose.  Scientific testing was done in 1971, proving that the flesh was a piece of actual heart tissue, and the blood was actual blood with no preservatives.  In fact, in all Eucharistic miracles that are preserved today, along with the Shroud of Turin, the blood type is always AB, the universal receiver.  This flesh and blood are still kept in Lanciano; you can do a Google search on it when you get home.  

Just as how the Lord has acted in the Church’s history, He wants to reveal to each one of us in a deeper way how He is present to us in the Eucharist.  Through seminary, I’ve become accustomed to receiving the Eucharist every day, and it is beautiful each day to quiet my soul and body, to be filled with awe at this mystery, and then let Christ’s love permeate my life.  I’m not perfect at receiving this – there are many distractions and barriers that I still want to overcome – but I know that I could not have arrived here without the Eucharist, and I want to continue to make the Eucharist the center of my life.  

There are several ways each of us can do this.  First, when we are here at Mass on Sunday, we can be intentional on not just going through the motions but in paying attention, praying with the priest, and asking Jesus for the grace to know His presence here even more.  Second, maybe we can spend more time in prayer with the Eucharist, either by going to daily Mass or doing a holy hour in adoration.  We have several open hours here, or you can stop in for shorter time periods whenever you would like.  Third, there are others in our lives who do not realize what a tremendous gift this is to us; can we share the Good News of the Eucharist with them or invite them to join us at Mass?  This can be a simple yet powerful way of evangelization.  

Overall, we are reminded by Jesus that though this world is often dark, and even as we have heard recently, leaders of the Church can also contribute to this darkness, but the Eucharist serves as our continual light of Christ’s faithfulness – He never forsakes us but always becomes present.  How blessed we are to be here, about to witness the miracle of the Eucharist and to receive Christ’s life into ourselves, so that we may eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, that we may have His life within us.