21^st Sunday in O.T. (B); August 25, 2024

Jos 24:1-2a,15-17b,18b.  Ps 34.  Eph 5:21-32.  Jn 6:60-69

Deacon Jim McFadden

            Today, we bring to closure our extraordinary Eucharistic discourse, which has been our focus for the last several weeks as we’ve pondered the precious revelation of the sixth chapter of John’s gospel. 

Previously, Jesus had laid out in unnerving, straight-forward fashion the Catholic doctrine of the Real Presence.  Now, when his audience balked at his words, perhaps thinking that he was advocating some kind of cannibalism, Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you” (Jn 6:53).  Unpacking the text, the Greek word for “eat” was trogein, which means to “gnaw, to munch.”  And, then seemingly to rub it in, he goes on to specify that “my flesh is real food and my blood is true drink” (v. 55).  If his listeners wanted polite, indirect, safe symbolism, what they got instead was an in-your face realism.  That’s the background for today’s reading.

            Today’s gospel begins, “Then many of his disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?”  Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you?”  (v. 61-62).  Bear in mind, if Jesus was simply engaging in metaphorical speech, why would anyone be particularly perplexed or shocked?  I mean, who’s going to get upset over symbolic language?  The disciples were balking, they were murmuring because they sensed that Jesus meant what he was saying; he wasn’t trading in symbolic language and that bothered them.

            Now, to get a sense of what’s at stake here, notice what next comes out of Jesus’ mouth: “What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” (v. 62).  At first blush, that’s a strange come-back whether what he is saying is metaphorical, symbolic, or real.  What sense does that make right here in this context?

            Remember, who is writing this gospel: namely, John the Evangelist, who announced in the very beginning of his Prologue that Jesus is the very Word of God become flesh: “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God…and the  Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth” (1:1,14).  Jesus is emphatically not one more in a long line of prophets, bearers of the word; rather, he is the very Word that the prophets bore.   This is precisely why a mystical relationship to him matters. 

            He is the one who has come from the very inner life of the triune God in order for us to share in that life.  We hear this in Jesus’ priestly prayer to his Father when he says “that they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (17:21).  Jesus, therefore, is the vehicle by which we are inserted into the very life of God.  St. Paul in his 1^st Letter to Timothy, succinctly put it this way: “For there is one God.  There is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as ransom for all” (2:5). 

            Now, let’s circle back to his words: “What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?”  Do you see now the import of those words?  The bread that he is going to give us is his very flesh or Self, which is the means by which we are mystically united to him in his heavenly reality.

            People of God, this is Christianity in a nutshell: we get across to the spiritual life of God precisely through the flesh, through the Body of this Jesus of Nazareth.  If he were just one more prophet, he’d be pointing to the spiritual reality of God like a finger points to the moon.  He’d be speaking a word about the divine reality.  But since he is the Word made flesh, his Body becomes the vehicle by which we enter into the heavenly reality of the triune God. 

            Now, his audience, the 1^st century Jews of Palestine, are perfectly comfortable with prophets, spokespersons, and mystics.  But, when a human being who came from the obscure town of Nazareth says to them that he is the vehicle by which they participate in the divine life, this is very disconcerting stuff!  What is going to happen? 

            Listen to the gospel: “As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him” (v. 66).  So, it has gone up and down the Christian centuries.  The teaching of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist has, indeed, become the inflection point as to whether they embrace him as the God-Man.  Many left him, never to return.  Today, on any given Sunday, 75% of Catholics do not attend Holy Mass.  Over 50% of Catholics believe the Eucharist is only a powerful symbol.  But, as Flannery O’Connor, one of the great Catholic fiction writers of the 20^th century said at a gathering of New York intellectuals: “Well, if it is only a symbol. I say to hell with it.”

            This is it: the disciples and apostles are at a crossroads whether they are going to accept his teaching that is so radical and strange.  The question is do they trust Jesus?  Do they believe in him?  We can sense this tension in Jesus’ speech at Capernaum.  Listen now as he speaks to the Apostles: “Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” (v. 67).  This is an extraordinary moment in the entire New Testament.  Here are his most intimate disciples.  The outer circle of disciples have wandered away, but now he turns to the Twelve, his closest followers who would become the foundation of his Church, and he asks, “Do you want to leave?”  In other words, do you find this teaching of mine too much to take?  Do you believe that I am the Truth?

            Notice that the sublime teaching of the Eucharist did not come at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, but towards the end.  During the course of his public ministry, he has intentionally and effectively drawn his followers into the mystery of who he is, which is the ground of the Eucharist.  He has been keeping that secret from them until now.  There is a direct line from the opening lines of John’s Prologue, “The Word became flesh” to the Eucharist.  And, now that he has revealed this great mystery, its decision-time.  Many will fall away just as they are doing today and he wonders if his inner circle, the Twelve, are going to fall away too.

            We’ll close with Peter’s response which is powerful, moving, and trusting: “Master, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life” (v. 68).  Peter has sensed the truth of it though he probably couldn’t articulate it very well at this time.  Though he probably couldn’t understand it, he sensed the truth of it because he believed that Jesus is Lord.  And, speaking for the Church, the Twelve, he says, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of everlasting life”

(v. 68).   It’s about the Eucharist and the successor of Peter and members of the mystical Body of Christ to say, “Lord, to whom shall we go?” 

            We’ve sensed in this revelation the deepest truth of our Catholic faith.  And that is why this Eucharist teaching that we’ve reflected upon the last several weeks remains so central to what it means to be a Catholic.  It is how we are drawn into the very life of Christ.

May the Blessed Virgin Mary, who bore her Son in the flesh and joined in his sacrifice, help us to always bear witness to our faith in our lives. Amen.

Questions for reflection:

1. Have you ever balked at Jesus’ direct language about the Eucharist? What helps you overcome any uncertainty you may have?

 2. We come to God through the Flesh of Jesus. Why did the Word become Flesh? What difference does that make in your life?

 3. How do you participate in divine life through Jesus?