For
My Flesh is True Food
Jn
6: 51 – 58
20th
Sunday in Ordinary Time
In today’s reading, Jesus continues to reveal himself as
the living bread come down from heaven. But he goes further in saying that the
bread he gives is his flesh. This causes some commotion among the crowd as they
did not understand what he meant.
Our reading starts with a stark revelation from Jesus as he
declared to the crowd: “ 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. “
Understandably so, the crowd who heard him speak this way
quarreled among themselves saying: “ How can this man give us his flesh to
eat?” Jesus then goes further, saying :
“ 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. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal
life, and I will raise him on the last day."
The
crowd must have been really stunned at hearing what Jesus said. This whole
discussion about Jesus being the bread come down from heaven was already hard
to understand as it was clear to them that Jesus was just a man who came from
the vicinity and not from heaven.
Now, he tells the crowd something more incredible – that
they have to eat this bread because this bread was his very flesh. He then
further adds that his blood was real drink; and that whoever eats his flesh and
drinks his blood has eternal life.
It would not have been surprising to see the crowd
quarreling among themselves because of such talk. Their minds simply could not
understand what he was talking about. To believe in Jesus was one thing. To be
asked by Jesus to eat his flesh and drink his blood was simply too much.
This discourse about Jesus giving his flesh and blood so we may eat and drink his body and blood has always been a difficult matter
to understand. To eat his flesh and drink his
blood is simply not possible to understand in its plain and simple sense. Like
the Jews, we too could be asking ourselves the same question: “ How can this
man give us his flesh to eat?”
But what we fail to see perhaps is the fact that Jesus’
body and blood, given up as our food, brings us back to the reality of his
sacrifice on the cross. There on the cross, he gave up his body and blood as a
sacrifice for our sake.
So when Jesus offered himself up on the cross, he gave up his
body and blood in the real and true sense of the word. As we hear from our reading, Jesus
never hesitated to offer to us his flesh and blood. He wanted us to take his body and blood because that is exactly what he did
on the cross. He offered himself up as a free and loving offering. And because of that free and loving offering of himself,
we can claim forgiveness for our sins and the hope of eternal life.
Every time we partake in the breaking of the bread, in the
Eucharist, we remember the Lord who gave up his body and blood for our sake
on the cross. There on the cross, Jesus could really say: “ This is
my body, this is my blood that is given up for you. “
This reading perhaps, instead of making us confused, should
leave us with a sense of gratitude because we know that we are loved. So loved
in fact, that Jesus was willing to give himself up totally for us without any
fear, without any hesitation. In doing so, Jesus showed us the loving face of God who is self-giving and self-sacrificing.
The certainty of Jesus giving himself up for us should give us
the firm belief that no amount of sin could really make Jesus give up on us; no
amount of weaknesses or mistakes which we may have done in the past, could ever stop
Jesus from giving himself up for our sake, even if that would mean giving up his
body and blood to us as food and drink so that we may have eternal life. Amen.
"Taste and see the goodness of the Lord. " - Psalm 34: 8
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