A Few Words On "The Word"

August 20, 2006
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

John 6: 51-58

Say What?!

Those of us who were baptized as babies, and made our first communion as kids, are used to hearing Jesus talk this way. Even non-Christian kids who grew up with Christians probably would yawn through today's gospel, hearing it as just more Bible-babble. But hang on a minute. Imagine how someone who had no knowledge of Christianity or experience of Christians would hear Jesus' words. His flesh is food? His blood is drink? If you don't eat Christ's body and drink Christ's blood, you can't really be alive?!

No wonder some of the Romans thought the first Christians were cannibals-with talk like this. (No lie-one of the rumors in the first century was that Christians kidnapped babies, cooked and ate them, drinking their blood!)

Even those of us who believe what Jesus says have to stop and wonder. Should stop and ask Christ in prayer, "Say what?!"

This is pretty deep stuff. But if you think about it, you come to appreciate how great, how true, are Jesus' words here. What do most newborn mammals eat? Their mother's milk, a substance created by and coming from her very flesh and blood. In fact, the English word "bread," meaning our basic, daily food, comes from the same word as "breast," the source of a mother's milk.

Beyond this, as human beings we know that other people feed and nourish us. Sometimes literally-mom or dad making your lunch; giving that special someone chocolate on Valentine's Day. More often metaphorically-being with our friends and doing stuff with them feeds our hearts and minds and souls. Our minds and hearts and souls would starve and weaken if we didn't have friendships and other relationships. And sometimes, loneliness makes people physically ill, too-just like being malnourished would.

Jesus knew that love was stronger than death, that love was daily bread as well as that drink we save for special occasions. That's why on the night before he died, he was able to see in common bread a way to be with us always: Take this bread and eat it. This is my body. And he saw in everyday wine a way to be with us always: Take this cup and drink from it. This is the cup of my blood. Still looks like bread. Still tastes like wine. But love changes things at their core. You know this to be true: that Valentine's Day chocolate is not just a snack, is it?

One way of understanding God's vision of peace is to dream of a world in which everyone is welcome to the table to eat and drink. Building that kind of lasting peace begins when we who belong to Christ come to God's table, share the eucharist, and become a living, holy communion.

Reflection Question

Share one way in which God nourished you through another person this past week: What happened and what did it really mean?

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