For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 19, 2018
John 6, 51-58
This week we are at the very heart of the mission of Jesus Christ. Through this 6th Chapter of John we are led though images and language of covenant, through talk of hunger and thirst to touch the mystery of what Jesus came to proclaim and accomplish. It is nothing less than the resurrection of the elect. “I have come, that none of those you have given me may be lost.” Says Jesus. The plan for that resurrection focuses now in these images and this language of flesh and blood. We both do well and do harm to connect these images to Eucharist. It is harmful to stop there and not go beyond the symbol to the effect. We do well if we relate Eucharistic images and language to Covenant. Jesus does that with his listeners when he connects what he is about to Moses and the Manna. But the Jews can’t stop there any more than we can stop with Eucharist. The point in both cases, Mana and Eucharist is the relationship, the intimacy, the bond which the food establishes. That is why “Communion” must mean something more profound than an object. It is about comUNION. Jesus is giving more than bread. Jesus is giving life, the life of God, the life he has from God, and the life that God would give to all. It is this life we share together in union with each other and in union with the giver of all life.
Fr. Tom Boyer