20^th Sunday in Ordinary Time B.  August 20, 2006.  Our Lady of Grace 7:30, 11:30, 6PM.  Proverbs 9: 1-6. Ephesians 5: 15-20. John 6: 51-58.

They couldn’t believe that Jesus meant what he was saying.  Had they made a mistake?  Did they hear his words correctly?   Jesus had said, “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 world.”

Those listening to him said, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

The objection to what Jesus was saying was very clear.  Jesus would have had to be either deaf or not very smart to miss their objection.  It is very important to recognize that Jesus didn’t correct his statement, as if they had heard something he didn’t intend to say.  Jesus didn’t say, “What I really meant to say is that whoever eats the bread that I will give is eating a symbol of my body.”  Jesus didn’t say, “Whoever eats the bread that I will give is only remembering me, or the Last Supper, or only entering into spiritual communion with me through a symbol.”  

Jesus just kept on talking, reaffirming what he had already said.  “And the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”   Yes, that is what Jesus had said and that was what Jesus intended to say.  He refused to back away from his original statement in spite of the objections.  In fact he made what he was saying even clearer and more definite.  Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.  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.” 

John’s Gospel does not give us an account of the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper.  The fact that Jesus had instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper was well known by the time the Gospel of John was written.  The question John is trying to answer is “what is the Eucharist and what does it mean in the Christian

life?”  The gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke all agree that at the Last Supper Jesus took bread into his hands and said, “This is my Body.” St. Paul, the writer of a quarter of the New Testament, only quotes Jesus twice in all of his letters. He doesn’t quote the words of Jesus on the Cross.  He doesn’t quote the preaching of Jesus.   But he does quote the words of Jesus at the Last Supper in the First Letter to the Corinthians.  St. Paul wrote, Jesus “took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is broken for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.” The question John is answering is what does “this is my Body mean?” “What does the word “is” mean?   All the ancient Christian Churches agree that Jesus meant the word “is” very literally.  He deliberately meant to say,” This is my Body.”  This is what the Roman Catholic Church teaches.  This is what all the Eastern Orthodox Churches teach.  This is what the other ancient Apostolic Churches teach.  

The belief and teaching that the bread and wine of the Eucharist are only symbolic and only a remembrance of the Last Supper is a teaching that was not held by any major Christian Church before the 16^th Century Protestant Reformation.  It is interesting that Martin Luther also believed in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, although he explained it differently than we do.  Luther’s Small Catechism says that Holy Communion is “the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ for us Christians to eat and to drink” Many churches that hold to the literal truth of every word in the Bible seem to miss the literal meaning of “This in my Body” and “My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.”

The very center of the life of the Church is the Eucharist.  The Eucharist is much more that a ritual.  The Eucharist is much more than music.  The Eucharist is much more than the gathering of a community. The Eucharist is more than Bible Study.  It is certainly much more than entertainment.  First and foremost the Eucharist is the living presence of Jesus Christ.

There are three things that Jesus commanded us to do in his memory: 

• The first is to celebrate the Eucharist.  “Do this in memory of me.”
• The second is to “Love one another as I have loved you.”
• The third is to “go forth and preach the gospel to the ends of the earth.”

These three are related to one another.  In fact, a Eucharist that does not empower us to love one another and to preach the gospel to all we meet is not a truly holy Eucharist.  It is only a shallow fulfillment of the law with no real power or benefit to our lives, or an empty habit done with very little faith and resulting in very little good.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta was deeply devoted to the Eucharist.  She said, “At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done."

We will be judged by “I was hungry and you gave me to eat.  I was naked and you clothed me.  I was homeless and you took me in.”

With great insight Mother Teresa said, “Our lives are woven with Jesus in the Eucharist, and the faith and the love that come from the Eucharist enable us to see him in the distressing disguise of the poor, and so there is but one love of Jesus, as there is but one person in the poor -Jesus."

Jesus said, “The bread that I will give is my own flesh for the life of the world.”   For Jesus, who transforms our lives by his living presence in the Eucharist, we give God thanks and praise.