In today’s gospel, we continue the bread of life discourse, which is the most important text inhuman history. We see that Jesus has come to the breaking point. He can no longer use veiled language to explain the critical teaching on what we know will be instituted as the Eucharist. He is at the point where He has already told the Jews that He is the Bread of Life and that the bread is His flesh, and they are starting to get angry. Jesus is saying some very hard and weird things, and if Jesus was speaking symbolically, this would be the time for any good teacher to clear up the misunderstanding (and of course Jesus is the Good Teacher). But he doesn’t. He doubles down. He tells them that they will have no life unless they eat His flesh and drink His blood…for His flesh is true food, and His blood is true drink. Jesus is very clear and He means what He says.
But…Why? Why is Jesus’ flesh true food, and why is Jesus’ blood true drink?
Because the Eucharist is the key to eternal life. God is love, and to remain in Him for eternity, that means that we must be love as well. Yet, we cannot do this on our own. The only way that we can do this is by being full of His grace. Being truly loving has been a problem for every human being to walk this earth since the time of Adam and Eve’s temptation in the garden (except for those who were full of grace). However, Jesus showed true love to the Father by accepting His will of death, even death on the cross. In the same way, Jesus showed love to all people because His death on the cross was the reparation for the separation that sin creates between us and God. Thus, Jesus shows us how to perfectly love God and others which (again) is something that had been broken since the first sin of Adam and Eve.
We are sinful, broken people. How do we love as Jesus loved? We simply cannot by ourselves. Rather, we need to take on Jesus himself in order to love as He loved. As we are people of both body and soul, we need healing and nourishment for both components that make up our fallen human person. The simple and beautiful answer that God gives to us? His Body and Blood in the form of a meal. If what we eat becomes part of us, sustains us, and gives bodily life, how much more will spiritual food aid the journey to Him. Thus the body, blood, soul and divinity of the perfect Lover, when consumed by us, will be true food and drink for eternal life.
Yet, this gift must be received in humility. In order to allow God to heal us, we must recognize that we have a sinning problem. We must die to ourselves in order to receive the Person of Christ into our hearts. He will not force Himself upon us. Rather, He will patiently wait knocking on the door until we let Him in. Mere bodily reception is not sufficient for receiving the full power of the Eucharist. The soul must be open as well. It must be willing (or desire to be willing) to do the will of the Father just as Jesus did even if it leads to death whether physical or social. We need to receive Him to be like Him. And that is what is given to us in the Eucharist.
This saying is hard, who can believe it? Yet, we can believe it not by focusing on the words that are said, but the person who says them. If we believe Him to be God, they are true, end of sentence. He will take care of all the beautiful details of instituting the Eucharist from the Passover bread and wine, but that is only icing on the cake. The reality is that in today’s gospel Jesus tells us something essential: We need life, and we cannot have it without Him. And the way He chooses to give Himself to us is by giving us His Body and Blood to feast on. Seen with the lens of salvation history, there is nothing more true, good, beautiful, and loving than that.
