20th Sunday of O.T. (B); August 18, 2024

Prv 9:1-6 Ps 34 Eph 5:15-20 Jn 6:51-58

Deacon Jim McFadden

 Today’s Gospel (Jn 6:51-58) is in many ways the climax of the discourse given by Jesus in the synagogue of Capernaum after he had fed thousands of people with the five loaves and two fishes the previous day. Jesus reveals the meaning of this miracle and what strikes us is how Christological this passage is; that is, this passage shows us so much about who Jesus is. He begins by saying, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever and the bread that I will  give is  my flesh for the life of the world” (Jn 6:51).

We’ve got to admit that Jesus is a strange and unique figure to use language such as this. I can’t imagine Buddha, Mohammad, or Confucius saying, “You should eat my body and drink my blood.” But,  Jesus is not an ordinary human being; He is not just another religious figure. Rather, He is the Word made Flesh. He is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God” (Nicene Creed). Jesus is the Word of God—He is the perfect self-reflective Thought of His Father. We hear in the beginning of John’s Gospel that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God…and through that Word all things came to be” (Jn 1:1,3b). We see this revealed in opening lines of Genesis when the Father created the world through his spoken Word, who is the Second Person of the Trinity, who would become incarnated in Jesus. This is the key: everything comes to be and is sustained through the Word of God. Therefore, what Jesus says IS! What He says becomes reality.  So, when He says that “this is my Body” that by God is his body. When he says that “this is my blood,” that by God is his blood because what he says is. That’s the ground of Catholic doctrine of the Real     Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. The doctrine hinges on who Jesus is.

            When the Jews quarreled among themselves saying, “How can this man gives us his flesh to eat?”, they were not seeing Jesus through the eyes of Faith. If Jesus is just another human being, then his proposal would be extremely disconcerting for the Jews at that time. For biblical Jews the eating of flesh with blood still in it was strictly forbidden. Why? Because blood was the principle of life; it belonged to God. Therefore, no one could take it upon himself to eat flesh with blood. And, we’re talking about animal flesh, which is still true in kosher settings today.

So, here’s a man, a fellow Jew, who’s saying that unless you eat my flesh, you have no life in you. It’s hard to imagine anything more disgusting than to hear something like that from the perspective of those gathered in the Capernaum synagogue. It’s the gross realism of the language that the people objected to, which is why they quarreled among themselves saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

 The reason that He can is that Jesus is Yahweh in the Flesh; He embodies the creative power of the divine Word. So, when Jesus takes bread and wine, he radically and substantially changes them through His Word into His Body and Blood. What He says becomes the reality.  And, when we eat his flesh and drink his blood, we enter into the fullness of life. How so: Jesus is Life itself! When we consume Jesus in Holy Communion we are entering into Life, which is  the dynamic of Trinitarian love.

Brothers and sisters, this discourse is heavy stuff! It not given to attract approval. Indeed, the listeners we’re repulsed by the sheer physicality of the language. I am sure that Jesus could sense the tension; his teaching was not going over very well. At this juncture, given every opportunity to soften his language, to modify it, or saying he only meant it symbolically so that they would accept what he  were saying, Jesus intentionally double downed. Listen to what the Lord says, “Amen, amen I say to you”–which is Jesus’ shorthand way to say what I’m about to say to you is really important–“unless you eat of the flesh of the son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life within you” (vs 53). When they object to the physical realism of his language, he turns up the heat. He doesn’t soften the language, but escalates it, making it more direct, more in your face.

This is a critical moment, a turning point of his public mission. Many of his disciples would bail on him–they couldn’t embrace the teaching because they didn’t see Jesus for who He is. To be sure the crowd and the disciples themselves were enthusiastic when he performed miraculous signs. The multiplication of the loaves and fishes was a clear sign that he was the long-awaited Messiah. They would have loved to carry Jesus into Jerusalem and make Him a Davidic king of Israel.

But, this is not what Jesus wanted. With his long discourse on the Bread of Life, Jesus was intentionally dampening their enthusiasm and inciting dissent. In explaining the image of the bread, he affirms that He had been sent by His Father to offer His life for the salvation of the world. Can they accept that Jesus is the Son of God? If they do, then they will accept in Faith His discourse on the Bread of Life. Those who accept Jesus, those who follow him as his disciples, will join him in a deep and personal relationship, which will be nurtured by the Eucharist. As we fully, consciously, and actively participate in the Holy Mass, we are participating in his sacrifice of Love.

Thus, Jesus, the Word made Flesh, would institute the Sacrament of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, so that his disciples themselves might share in his love and in so doing, become one Body united with Him. And, as members of His mystical Body, the Church, we, his missionary disciples, extend the mystery of salvation to the world.

So, bringing our reflection to closure. The Incarnation and the Eucharist go together. Who is Jesus Christ?  He’s not one religious figure among many; he’s not simply another religious founder.  But he is God from God; therefore, what he says is.  The consecrated bread and wine are his Body and Blood because by God he says so?  Bring those two points together and you’ll get the  import of this climatic section of sixth chapter of John. Let it be our prayerful meditation this week.

Amen.

Reflection Questions:

1. For St. Paul, “There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and all men” and that is Jesus Christ (cf. ! Tm 2:5).  Do you believe that Jesus is the sole and universal savior or just one of several ways to God?
2. Do you see and appreciate the connection between the Incarnation and the Eucharist?
3. How important is the Eucharist to your spiritual journey?