How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
The Jews in the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel could not wrap their minds around the teaching of Jesus on the Eucharist. They heard His words loud and clear, “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 word.”
They were shocked and argued among themselves, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” Their question and attitude show us four things that keep us from true and living faith in Christ’s Eucharistic presence.
First, they fail to recognize the divinity of Jesus Christ. They merely saw Him as “this man,” and not as the God-man, the Truth Incarnate, the one who cannot deceive or be deceived. By seeing Jesus as a mere man, they thought that merely arguing or debating among themselves could bring them to understand His words. They thought that their little minds alone could wrap themselves around the gift of Jesus in the Eucharist.
We must be careful not to make the same mistake when we consider the Eucharist. If we truly accept the divinity of Christ, then we will know that faith in the Eucharist can only come to us as a gift from God Himself. Only God Himself can reveal to us the truth of the Eucharist and also move our minds to assent to this truth. Instead of arguing and debating, we are to beg God for the gift of faith in the Eucharist. We can face the Eucharistic mystery with this statement of faith and petition for faith, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief” (Mk 9:24).
Secondly, the Jews ignore the great humility of Jesus in giving Himself to us in the Eucharist. In His humility, He “came down from heaven,” to become one like us, to live, suffer, and die on the cross. He takes that humility to the deepest level by remaining with us sacramentally so that we can have His Eucharistic presence with us. Blinded by their pride, they tried to decipher and understand His words by their own reason alone.
We learn from their mistake and approach the Eucharistic mystery with deep humility. We humbly receive these words with deep humility and gratitude that Jesus revealed such a mystery to us.
How blessed we are to have faith that the Lord of all Creation will be present to us in the form of bread and wine. The Father allows us to enter this mystery only when we practice childlike humility, “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike” (Mt 11:24). We, too, will be blinded by our pride if we do not approach this mystery with deep humility.
Thirdly, the Jews fail to recognize the deep love that Jesus has for us in giving Himself for us in the Eucharist. St. Ignatius of Loyola said that true love does everything to share what is its own with the beloved. Divine love has innovated in the Eucharist an unfathomable way of communicating His divine life to souls.
We cannot grasp the mystery of the Eucharist if we are not ready to share in all that Jesus offers us in this sacrament. We must be ready to share in His way of loving and serving others. We want to share in that great love that He had for the Virgin Mary in choosing her to be His own sinless mother too. We also freely share in His saving mission to all the world by making Him known and loved by all. We are ready to share in His own suffering and passion to share in His glory.
Lastly, the Jews approach this teaching on the Eucharist with a self-focused attitude. They focused only on the challenging and demanding teaching and not on the glory of the One who spoke to them. They wanted something that would not stretch their faith, something that would be to their taste and preference, and something that would not demand radical faith from them.
We must learn from their mistake and approach the sacrament of the Eucharist with our focus on Jesus and His greater glory. The Eucharistic Lord is with us to draw us out of ourselves and towards a deeper communion with the Triune God. Thus, we must approach the Eucharist to please God and to glorify Him with our lives, and not necessarily to get something pleasant for ourselves. As Jesus assures us, He will give us everything else, including Eucharistic faith, when we “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (Mt 6:33).
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, St. Paul’s words to the Ephesians are very striking, “Brothers and sisters, watch carefully then how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise, making the best of the opportunity, because the days are evil” (Eph 5:15-16). He is inviting them to live well in their evil times and not allow themselves to be overcome by the evils of life or the many examples of foolishness from their contemporaries.
We, too, are living in truly foolish and evil times. We have the foolishness that attempts to change the gender of persons. We see the foolishness that ignores the fundamental and unchangeable differences between males and females. We see the mocking of all that is sacred, especially human sexuality, the traditional teaching of the Church, and her sacraments. The Church is slowly caving into this powerful deluge of evil and foolishness when it asks its clergy to offer blessings to “same-sex” couples without making any moral demands on them or calling them to conversion and faith in Jesus Christ.
The Eucharist remains God’s remedy for all these evils and foolishness. This is where we encounter Incarnate Wisdom Himself who invites us to Him in these words, “Let whoever is simple turn in here; to the one who lacks understanding, she says, ‘Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed! Forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding’” (Prov 9:4-6). We are enlightened by Christ Himself to forsake foolishness and resist evils in and through the Eucharist.
It is also in the Eucharist alone that we are privileged to enter into the sacrifice of Christ now and share in His complete self-sacrifice to the Father in love. The Eucharist makes it possible for us to offer ourselves as “living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, our spiritual worship.” Such Eucharistic lives prevent us from “being conformed to this age, but [transformed] by the renewal of our minds, that we may discern what is the will of God, what is good, pleasing and perfect” (Rom 12:1-2).
This is why we must never jeopardize our faith in the Eucharist in today’s world of sin and foolishness. We can hold onto this faith only if we believe in Jesus’ divinity, approach Him with humble love, and seek to glorify Him above all things.
Glory to Jesus!!! Honor to Mary!!!
Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on Unsplash
