Jesus feeds us with his Body and BlooD

Homily for Ordinary Time – 20^th Sunday Year B 2015

Proverbs 9:1-6; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58

Introduction

“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” That’s what the Jews say, when Jesus tells them that he is the “living bread that came down from heaven” and that “whoever eats this bread will live forever.”  They accuse Jesus of promoting cannibalism, something which is a taboo in virtually every human society.

I am reminded of a story told by an African bishop who was visiting the USA.  This bishop was speaking at Mass, to parishioners like you, inviting some of them to come to his diocese and serve as missionaries.  After Mass, one lady came to him and said: “Bishop, I really want to come to your country, but I have heard that you have cannibals in Africa and I am afraid to be eaten.”  With a smile, the bishop assured her: “Don’t worry my dear lady; we have no more cannibals.  Just before I left home to come here, we ate the last cannibal.”

Scripture and Theology

The people accuse Jesus of cannibalism, because they fail to understand what he is trying to teach them in John Chapter six, the chapter which we have been reading piece by piece for the past three Sundays.

1.    Three Sundays ago, we heard Jesus feed the five thousand with five loaves and two fish that he multiplied miraculously.  This miracle was supposed to be the backdrop of the much greater miracle of the Eucharist, which Jesus would give them some time later.

2.    Then two Sundays ago, the crowds came back to look for Jesus, expecting him to feed them again.  But Jesus makes them a new proposition; he tells them to look for food that lasts and that food is himself, the bread of life.

3.    Last Sunday, Jesus then explained the first of two ways in which he is the bread of life.  He explained that he is the bread of life, because he feeds the people with the Word of God.

4.    And finally today, in the fourth part of the chapter, we have heard Jesus explain the second way in which he is the bread of life; he feeds the people with his Body and Blood.

These two ways of feeding are reflected in the two main parts of our Mass.

·        In the first part, the Liturgy of the Word (which has the readings, homily, creed and general intercessions), we observe what Jesus taught last Sunday: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.”

·        In the second part of the Mass, the Liturgy of the Eucharist, (which has the offertory, the Eucharistic Prayer and communion), we observe what Jesus teaches in today’s gospel: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”

But the crowds rejected both forms of bread that Jesus offered them.

·        They rejected the nourishment of his Word saying: “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’ [and I am teaching God’s message]?

·        And today they rejected the nourishment of his Body and Blood saying: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Unfortunately, the rejection of Jesus’ gifts of the Word and his Body and Blood by the crowds continues even today.

Christian Life

Perhaps our issue today is not the fear of cannibalism, eating the flesh of Jesus and therefore asking: “How can this man gives us his flesh to eat?” Our issue today is the difficulty of understanding how this bread and this wine can be the Body and Blood of Jesus.

Both concerns stem from the same misunderstanding.  We understand reality to be only what we can see and touch, what we know with our senses.  But here we are dealing with God, who is by definition beyond what we can see and touch, what we know by our senses.  God is Spirit and his gifts are spiritual.

Most husbands, who know what is good for them, usually don’t just say “I love you” to their wives on the anniversary of their wedding day.  They know that the sentiment of love must be expressed with a bouquet of roses or some other gift will help to make their intangible love very tangible.

That is why on the night before he died, Jesus took bread, and gave thanks; broke the bread and giving it to his disciples, said: “Take this, all of you and eat, this is my body, which will be given up for you.  Do this in memory of me.”  He did the same with the wine.  He did all these things because he wanted to explain in a very clear way, what he was going to do the next day on the cross.  By feeding them with his Body and Blood in the form of bread and wine, he taught the disciples that on the cross he was going to give his life for the world.  St. Paul explains this very well when he says: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes” (1 Cor. 11:26).

And if the bread and wine are to proclaim the death of the Lord effectively, they must be the real body and blood of Jesus.  For Jesus teaches: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” And even when the people raised the charge of cannibalism and began to leave him, Jesus did not retract or soften his teaching.  He did not say: “Don’t worry; I was only speaking symbolically; you are not really eating my Body and drinking my Blood.  You are only eating symbols of my Body and Blood.”  Rather, he reiterates and repeats the teaching saying: “For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”

And yet as Pope Benedict has taught, we Christians are not cannibals; we do not eat flesh, as cannibals would do.  The Lord Jesus whom we eat in the Eucharist is much more than the flesh that walked the highways and byways of Nazareth.  In the consecrated bread and wine, the Christ who gives himself to us is living and glorious; he gives us his Body and his Blood, with his soul and his divinity, in a true, real and substantial manner.  He gives us himself as he truly is.

It would be a pity, if we missed the gift that Jesus gives us, either by thinking of cannibalism like the Jews did or by stopping at what appears to be bread and wine.  It would be like the unfortunate husband, whose wife studied plants. On their first wedding anniversary he brought her a bouquet of really exotic roses.  But being the scientist, she failed to see the love that the roses represented, and instead cut them up to study them as plants with scientific value.

Conclusion

When in Old Testament, the Lord gave the Israelites manna from heaven, they were able to walk for forty years in the desert, strengthened by that bread.

In Jesus, the Lord does something even greater.  In the Eucharist that we celebrate, in the communion that we receive, we are enabled to walk not just for forty days and nights, not even for forty years, but until eternity.  For what we receive is what Jesus has offered on the cross, himself, the way to eternal life.

The charge of cannibalism cannot stand; for the Lord we receive in the Eucharist is way greater than the flesh he had.  Nor can the charge of symbolism stand; for the Lord we receive can transform mere bread and wine and make them the channels of his presence and nourishment for us.

May we always hold the Eucharist in great esteem as the Lord has told us to, proclaiming his death when we come to Mass, eating the bread of eternal life when we receive communion, and adoring the Lord’s presence among us in the Blessed Sacrament.