Today’s reading is a continuation of Jesus’ Eucharistic sermon recorded in John’s Gospel, chapter 6. We have been hearing it for several weeks, and, in some ways, it seems that we have been hearing the same words over and over. That would be unusual for the carefully crafted calendar of Gospel readings that we’re accustomed to. Why, we might ask.
A closer look would reveal that this is a long chapter, and each Sunday’s Gospel has been new each week. It’s true, though, that the words are nearly the same, week after week. As a matter of fact, Jesus is repeating Himself over and over, indeed! Eat My Flesh. Drink My Blood. My Flesh is real food. My Blood is real drink, Unless you eat My Flesh and drink My Blood, you shall not have life in you. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood remains in me and I in him. In the meantime, His followers are looking at one another and saying (‘quarreling,’ we hear today), “How can this be true?” “What does He mean, eat and drink my flesh and blood?” How can we do that?” “This is a hard saying!” (Now THAT’S an understatement). He sees that His disciples (followers, not necessarily the 12 apostles) are resisting His message. If we imagine ourselves hearing this for the first time with no qualifying explanation, we would probably ask the same questions, and, if some were taking it literally, we might surely quarrel about it. Why didn’t Jesus say, “Wait, I know it sounds bad, but it will look and taste like bread and wine so it’s not really eating and drinking My Flesh and Blood”– but He doesn’t say that. He never tries to explain what the Eucharistic miracle is. He tells it just as it is: we eat His Flesh and we drink His Blood. Amen. No maybe, no sort of, no what I really mean is–Jesus says, This is My Gift to you. Take it. Believe it. Love it. Cherish it. Never mind the appearance. Once you receive Me you will never be the same. Trust me!
Trust Me. It takes pure faith. If we believe anything Jesus said, we have to believe everything He said. We have to believe as little children do: If You say so, I believe it. Imagine what those words sounded like to the apostles who had been with Him so long. They must have believed Him because they NEEDED to believe Him. It must have sounded so wonderful–He would remain in me and I would remain in Him! What good news that would be for these unlearned fishermen–and a tax collector–these words of forever belonging to Jesus, even though they could not understand Him any better than the others who heard Him. It would mean a loving union with Him like they never knew possible.
It was almost too good to be true. But it was true, as they would see at the Last Supper, when they were privileged to receive their first Holy Communion. Can’t you almost hear them breathing the words to themselves–Ahh. so this is what He meant! It’s a miracle, like so many other miracles He’s performed, bnt this is incredibly beautiful. He wants to be with us. He wants to live in us, so we can live in Him. When can we receive Him like this again? This must be what Heaven will be like….
What heaven will be like.
I think today of the people who have been deprived of Holy Communionafter having received Him regularly. Can you remember the pandemic when we weren’t permitted to go to Sunday Mass? Watching Mass on television was nice and convenient, but it wasn’t Holy Communion the way we needed Him. I think of people in prison, or in small country parishes where they only have Mass once a month. Of people in hospitals who never see a priest or Eucharistic minister. People in mission countries who walk for days to Holy Mass when the priest finally comes–because they are longing for Holy Communion. Oh, the longing….
We’ve come a long long way since that day in Palestine when Jesus first spoke those mysterious words–Remain in Me and I remain in you.
But today, tomorrow, next Sunday, let us receive Jesus in Communion as the apostles first received Him. As people who long for His coming. As believers who trust Him to be their Companion on the journey. With a childlike heart, let us become his dwelling place. Now and forever.
and then