Jesus said, Amen, amen, 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. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.

The Fathers of the Church loved reflecting on this passage’s reversal. Unlike what happens when we eat ordinary food, it nourishes us and becomes part of us; eating the flesh and blood of Christ allows us instead to be assimilated into Christ. When we receive him in communion, we are brought into a profound union with him so that we and Jesus share his life and the life of God. We can be tabernacles of the divine as we walk in God’s world.

The message of Jesus is that he is our life. He is the pathway leading to life, the inner truth of our existence, the very substance of eternal life. Only by embracing his message, consuming his words in the Liturgy of the Word, and encountering him in the mystery of the Eucharist can we have true life in ourselves. This is Jesus’ promise.

We are told Jesus gave this discourse “while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.” That synagogue was not large, approximately 50 x 60 feet. So, it was hardly a large crowd that heard Jesus that day. However, it had become Jesus’ headquarters, as it were, and the people there had witnessed or heard of the miracles Jesus did in Capernaum, knew of the miraculous feeding, and had probably heard him teach there before. They had no reason to dismiss his teaching this time. Hopefully, we trust Jesus’ word more today.

Are we any different from his synagogue audience that day?

Let Us Pray:

O loving Jesus, help me to appreciate more and more the gift of yourself you offer us in the Eucharist. Grant that I may indeed become more like you each day.