20th Sunday: Year B

May you in this Eucharistic celebration through the Holy Communion you receive  be profoundly and intimately united with Jesus Christ  who donates his flesh and blood for your nourishment in this life and for eternal life in the next. Happy Sunday ! +John I. Okoye

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Prov. 9, 1-6; Ephesians 5, 15-20; John 6, 51-58; 20th Sunday: Year B)

    We recall that in the last Sunday’s gospel when Jesus affirmed that he was the bread of life, the true bread that descended from heaven the Jews murmured, thereby contesting his divine origin. Reacting to their murmuring, Jesus went further to state that he not only did descend from heaven, sent by the Father and seen the Father but that he was also the living bread which gives eternal life: Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world. The thought of feeding on human flesh was repulsive to some of his hearers and they started arguing: How can he give us his flesh to eat? In unmistakable language Jesus insisted that his flesh was food and his blood was drink. Lest this claim should go unnoticed, he stated it four times (vv. 53-56). The phrase flesh and blood is rich in meaning. On a literal level, it is a common way of characterizing a human being. When applied to Jesus, it is a proclamation of faith in the incarnation. He was indeed flesh and blood. On another level, it calls to mind the victim of sacrifice that is first slaughtered (flesh and blood) and then shared at a cultic meal (food and drink). Jesus is flesh and blood in this way as well, first as the sacrificial victim on the cross and then as Eucharistic food and drink. 
The Christological interpretation of the manna has taken on new meaning here. The flesh and blood of Jesus have become the source of life for those who partake of it. In other words, eternal life comes from feeding on Jesus, not simply from believing in him, as was stated in the Gospel readings of past Sundays (John 6:29, Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time; 6:47, Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time). Jesus goes one step further in his teaching on eternal life. He implies that it is not something that believers merely hope to enjoy in the future. Instead, those who share in the Eucharist already possess eternal life. What the future holds for them is the fullness of life that will be enjoyed after the general resurrection on the last day. The course through which eternal life passes from God to us is simply sketched. The living God whom Jesus calls Father is the source of this life; Jesus already enjoys it because of his intimate union with God; believers already enjoy it because they feed on Jesus, who is the bread of life. 

Jesus still develops the eating metaphor further. He maintains that just as we and what we eat and drink become one, so Jesus and those who feed on him form an intimate union. In a mutually intimate way, they abide in him and he in them. The Greek word used here (menei) means to stay in a place, to abide forever. This implies that Jesus does not merely visit those who feed on him, he stays with them; dwells there permanently. Eucharistic union with Jesus is as intimate as the act of eating, and the mutual indwelling that results from it is just as personal. There should now be no question in the minds of his hearers. Jesus, not manna, is the bread that came, not from the sky but from the very being of God. Those who ate manna died; those who feed on Jesus live forever.

The word Eucharist comes from the Greek word eucharisteo which means I give thanks. We should always and everywhere be thankful to God for the gift of the Eucharist. The best way we can appreciate the immensity of love Jesus showed us in the gift of his Body and Blood is to respond to this invitation with love and devotion, always partake of this holy meal and allow it to transform our lives. It would be a contradiction to feed on Life Himself without becoming fully alive and sharing this life with others. The worst of it all would be to treat this wonderful gift of love with indifference or cold response as many do today.  For those who have lost touch with this sacrament all together, let the words of Christ, today, serve as a reawakening: “If you do not eat the flesh… and drink his blood, you will not have life in you”. May we, therefore, pray in this Eucharistic celebration that through the Holy Communion we receive, we may be profoundly and intimately united with Jesus Christ who donates his flesh and blood for our nourishment in this life and for eternal life in the next. Happy Sunday ! +John I. Okoye.

 (graphics  by chukwubike)