Real Food and Real Drink

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

We come to the close of our Lord’s Discourse on the Bread of Life. One would imagine that His audience’s hearts had been softened by all the explanation which our Lord had offered thus far and which we have heard for the past few weeks. But our Lord’s teaching on this subject reaches its climax today with this shocking revelation. The kid’s gloves are off and no mushy gooey diet is served to His listeners. Our Lord gets to the very heart of the matter and says it as it is: “if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you. Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.” If eating flesh makes you sick to your stomach, try drinking blood to down the gory meal!

If it is disgusting to demand that they eat His flesh, can you imagine the horror of His audience when the Lord tells them that they must also drink His blood. The Jews have one of the most hemophobic cultures on this planet; there is little that is more disgusting and offensive to a Jew than being expected to touch blood, let alone consume it. And the text did not use the standard Greek verb “to eat” here when it emphasises this eating and drinking: φᾰγεῖν (phagein) is the standard, classical Greek verb “to eat,” the way humans eat a meal. The verb here instead is τρώγειν (trōgein), used especially of animals eating or feeding, most literally translated as “to bite, chew, gnaw.” No dainty fine dining here but a blood fest!

Up to this point, the growing crowd had been thrilled with the Lord. After all, He could heal the sick and feed the masses with a meagre supply of bread and fish! Was this the long-awaited Prophet, the likes which they have not seen since Moses? They were even ready to make Him king. But our Lord discerned something defective about their enthusiasm. They desired more loaves from heaven, a repeat performance of what Moses did for their ancestors during the Exodus, but not the bread He had come to give them: Himself. So, He tested their understanding and readiness to accept what He was about to offer them with a series of increasingly provocative statements, culminating in the one above. We should not be surprised that they took offence; it sounded like cannibalism. The “Jesus for King” campaign suddenly evaporated.

Protestants would look at this passage and insist that the crowds had misunderstood our Lord by taking His words literally whereas they should be understood metaphorically. Here is where our Protestant brethren have gotten it wrong. It is ironic how Protestants take many passages in the Bible literally but not this one, even though our Lord insists that He was. Our Lord was indeed speaking literally instead of metaphorically. His declaration that He was the Bread of Life is radically different from all the other “I am” pronouncements. No one expects Jesus to be speaking literally when He describes Himself as the Door or the Vine. But here our Lord insists that His flesh and blood are real food and real drink. As one aging statesman is fond of saying: “no kidding… it’s not hyperbole … but seriously!”

There seems little question about what the Lord meant: If He did not intend for His words to suggest an actual eating and drinking of His body and blood, He would not have emphasised this statement more explicitly when questioned about it, and He would have made some effort to clarify the misunderstanding when His disciples protested, if it was in fact a misunderstanding. We would hear how He refused to correct His words in next week’s final instalment of Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel, even when many of His disciples decided to walk away in protest. He did not stop them because for once, they did understand what He meant and since He literally spoke the truth, there is no need for Him to apologise or correct His speech. Our Lord refused to revise His speech even if it meant losing these number of followers. They were not true “disciples” who were ready to accept Him at His word.

“If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you will not have life in you.” That’s a tall claim, in fact, the tallest! Other types of food give sustenance and provide us with the necessary nutrition for health and growth and ensures our survival. But only one food can guarantee Eternal Life. It is the Eucharist: “Anyone who eats this bread will live forever!” The first reading taken from the Book of Proverbs speaks of Wisdom preparing a feast. The Eucharist is indeed the Feast of Wisdom because it is the Feast of Life – eternal life which is communion with God. This life in communion with God is the highest wisdom, and surpasses all wisdom, because it seals this bond between God and man. By eating the Body and drinking the Blood of Christ in the Eucharist we become united to the person of Christ through his humanity. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”

In being united to the humanity of Christ we are at the same time united to His divinity. Our mortal and corruptible natures are transformed by being joined to the source of life. In a divine twist, that which was desired by Adam and Eve (food that would make them like gods) but denied to them as a result of their disobedience and foolishness, is made available through this food which Christ, Holy Wisdom, now commands us to partake.

One of the keys to understanding Catholic theology — and one of the beauties, in its simplicity and complexity at the same time — is that just as this passage conveys both a physical and a spiritual sense, each of the Sacraments conveys both a physical and a spiritual effect. The Sacraments consist outwardly in simple, physical actions: washing with water, anointing with oil, the laying on of hands. And these actions not only symbolise a spiritual reality — the washing away of sins, the passing of authority and commissioning of duty — but they actually accomplish spiritually what they represent physically. Likewise, the Eucharist, by the simple act of eating and drinking the consecrated Hosts, not only symbolises and represents Communion in Christ’s Body, but actually infuses us with His grace because IT IS the Body and Blood of Christ. We literally, physically, spiritually share in Christ’s Body and Blood, in His humanity and divinity, in His eternal life. We believe this to be true because He had said so and who are we to doubt when you’ve heard it from the horse’s mouth.