What Jesus says, IS!

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 6, 52-59)

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

Jesus was teaching in the Synagogue at Capernaum. He was saying wonderful things that were difficult to understand fully. The crowd in the synagogue was looking for him because he had fed them for free with five barley loaves and two fish. Jesus challenged them to look for food that endures to eternal life. They wanted this food and they remembered the manna God gave their forefathers to eat in the desert, abundant and free. They were still thinking of material food: bread, fish and meat.

Listen here.

Starting from the memory of the manna in the desert Jesus tried to lead them to a higher level. So he told them that it is ‘the Father that gives the bread from heaven, the true bread … [that] gives life to the world’. When the people asked him to give them always this true bread from heaven, Jesus answered: “I am the bread of life”.

In his discourse at Capernaum, just before today’s selection, twice Jesus declared solemnly that he was the bread of life and another time that he was the living bread which has come down from heaven. Jesus was declaring that he was the living bread and the life-giving bread, that which gives life to those who eat of it. “My flesh is real food” he told them “and my blood is real drink, [and] he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him … anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.”

The crowd was confused. The one they knew as the son of Joseph the carpenter was telling them that they had to eat his flesh and drink his blood if they wanted to live for ever.

Can we point our fingers at this unbelieving crowd who found Christ’s words ‘intolerable language’? Can we blame them? Don’t we sometimes struggle with our faith in Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist? Don’t we sometimes ask ‘how can this be’? Are we able to ‘solve’ this mystery?

When I was meditating on this, I remembered Luke’s story of the annunciation. Mary was confused when the angel Gabriel told her that she was to bear a child, and she asked him: “How can this come about?” The angel said consoling words to her: “Mary”, he said, “do not be afraid … the Holy Spirit will come upon you … nothing is impossible to God!” Mary answered: “I believe! I am the handmaid of the Lord!”

When we are in the presence of the Eucharistic Christ, when doubts come our way, when we ask ourselves ‘how is this possible’, we should remember the angel Gabriel’s words: Do not be afraid. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, whose power is invoked during the Eucharistic prayer. Our answer should be: I believe! I am your servant, Lord.

Let us not be like the unbelieving followers who complained about Christ’s words and left him. Rather, let us be like the twelve apostles. When Jesus asked: “Does this upset you? … What about you, do you want to leave me too?” through Peter and with him they answered: “Lord, who shall we go to? … We believe; we know you are the Holy One of God!”

Like the apostles on another occasion, let us ask Jesus to increase our faith, and let us be ready to listen to his answer. This is not about how great our faith is, for Jesus tells us: “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you” (Lk 17, 5-6). He asks us to put our trust in him. Indeed, Jesus is the “Word who was with God [and] through him all things came to be [and] had life in him” (Jn 1, 1-4). This same Word, during the Last Supper said: “This is my body … this is the chalice of my blood … Do this in memory of me”. What Jesus says, is! He created everything that exists! He created the Eucharist!

Indeed, he has “the power and the honour and the glory now and for ever” (Cfr Rev 4, 11) to change bread into his flesh and wine into his blood. And he is powered by his immense love for us, a love that suffered a horrible death, a love that gives us himself in the Eucharist so that we could live our life to the full and so cultivate our hope in a glorious and eternal life.

Yes, Lord Jesus, you are the Word of life, the Word that gives life to all those who desire it, who ask for it, and who accept it, even though we do not always understand it. Thank you, Lord!