True Food and True Drink

What did Jesus mean when he said, “you must eat my flesh and drink my blood?”  Did he mean this in a super literal sense as in being cannibals?  That is what some of the audience who was listening to Jesus thought.  “As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.”  They thought that Jesus was asking them to break the law, i.e. to become cannibals.  Jesus tries to explain himself one last time before some depart, “The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.”

So what is it that we actually receive in the Eucharist?  Do we receive true flesh and true blood or some spiritual aspect of that, or a symbol, or sign of Jesus rather than actual flesh and blood?  Here is what we do not receive.  When we celebrate Mass the actual earthly Jesus does not come down from heaven and place himself on the altar and then give us parts of himself to consume, that would be cannibalism and we would be breaking God’s law.  Rather, we receive Jesus through sacramental signs – the signs being bread and wine but in some spiritual way they become truly, fully, and completely the entire person of Jesus, so that when we do receive we truly receive the Lord and become one with him.  We receive in a supernatural or miraculous way.

We do not receive half of Jesus or some symbolic aspect of him; we truly receive him, just not in a cannibalistic fashion.  That being said, think of how awesome and wonderful that is, that we truly become one with our Lord in our receiving of the Eucharist.  Marriage language is a way of describing this wonderful reception.  In a marriage two people give themselves freely to one another.  They exchange vows and then later the marriage is brought to completion through consummation and in both instances the two truly become one flesh.  We also when approaching Jesus exchange vows, when the priest says, “The Body of Christ,” we respond and say, “Amen.”  In some way we are exchanging vows, promises, or saying yes to one another, Jesus to us, and we to him.  In our actual receiving him the act is consummated, the two become one as St. Paul says so beautifully, “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.”

Today’s 2^nd reading from St. Paul to the Ephesians also uses marriage language to describe our relationship to Christ, which is the entire Church to its head, our Lord and Savior.  Jesus even became obedient to us in and that he offered himself without resistance, so too then should we be ever so obedient to him, especially in receiving him in the Eucharist, for we become one with our Lord, he in us and we in him.

The beauty and magnificence of the Eucharist knows no equal, in all that we can do as Christians nothing compares to what we receive in Holy Communion.  Jesus himself said, “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”  The words were that his flesh is true food and that his blood is true drink.  We are called to this and very soon.  As you approach today remember that you will exchange words with Jesus when you say, Amen, but you will also exchange your very lives as he gives himself to you and you to him.  God bless you, Fr. John