I and many of you have probably taken courses on communication as part of a job training course or courses. In fact, I think I have another class on it next week. It is an important skill. I wish it was taught when I went through school. If we do not communicate well, it’s really hard to get anything done- at work, at home, in relationships. Communication is the way we make ourselves and our needs known to others. It’s the way we convey ideas and feelings, how we express opinions and formulate arguments, and how we organize almost everything in life.
When we really get to the basics of the Gospel, it is really Jesus communicating to us the nature of God and what God reveals as important. Jesus was obviously a great communicator. He had a large following. He used parables and stories to explain the deep mysteries of the Kingdom.
Suppose we were living during that time. Let’s say we lived around the Sea of Galilee which is a really beautiful part of Israel. We hear about this great teacher named Jesus. We go to hear him speak and are just amazed at what he says. He makes the complicated stuff the Pharisees and scribes try to explain seem simple. We’re thinking maybe there is something about this guy. Then, we hear what Jesus says in today’s gospel.
What would your reaction have been if you were in the crowd that day? Being the great communicator that he is, Jesus mentions eating his flesh and drinking his blood three times. He refers to it a fourth time too via inference. The gospel tells us those in the crowd started to murmur and ask questions. I’m guessing the reaction was probably a little more visceral. I’m sure the words “crazy” and “out of his mind” were uttered more than once. Next week, we’ll see the consequences of Jesus’ words.
I think we can understand the reactions of Jesus’ listeners. On the surface, Jesus’ words are shocking, unusual, and gross. They have caused schisms and disbelief in the Christian world to this day. The leadership in the Church sensing this disbelief just had a big Eucharist Conference in Indianapolis.
In an ironic way though, the themes of the first two readings, I would argue, are about wisdom. The reading from the Book of Proverbs is an open invitation from Wisdom, with a capital W. She invites us all to her banquet where we will reject foolishness and advance in the way of understanding. In St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, he advises them not to be foolish or ignorant. He advises wisdom and to try and discern the will of the Lord. How do we weave this wisdom theme into the words we hear from Jesus in the Gospel?
Jesus never says his words are symbolic or a metaphor. We have to take him at his word. The Early Church believed from its very beginning in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. The receiving of Jesus in the Eucharist is just the beginning. The clues for this are throughout the Gospel. Those who do what Jesus says will have life, including eternal life, within him or her, will remain in Jesus and Jesus will remain in them, and will have life because of Jesus. If all of this is true, and we must take Jesus at his word, this is so much more than consuming simple food and drink.
What then happens when we consume the body and blood of Jesus in the Eucharist? In John Chapter 1, the evangelist states that through Jesus “all things were made”. Therefore on a physical and spiritual level, do we then become one with all that is and was? Would this then change how we look at our natural environment and those in it? Do we then become one with each other and the rest of humanity? I think Jesus has already answered that question. What would the world truly look like if we could shed our own narrowness and open ourselves to the possibilities presented by Jesus’ gift of himself in the Eucharist.
To do this, we truly need to eat his flesh and drink his blood. What does blood do in and for the body? It helps to deliver nourishment to the cells of the body and at the same time helps to carry away the excess garbage. Jesus promises to do this for us through his flesh and blood. That is the life he describes in the Gospel. We become one in him and he remains in us. We participate, in a very special way, with the life of the Trinity. As this happens, Jesus pours his graces into us. These graces include healing, comfort, spiritual strength, and forgiveness. It’s the same as what Jesus provided to the people of first century Palestine.
He takes away the garbage- selfishness, greed, pride, anger. We hopefully become what we eat. The end goal for us is to receive and then act upon, as much as we can, the love that Jesus has for all of creation. The fact that we do this as a community of faith makes it all the better. We gather each Sunday to remember Jesus’ sacrifice for our salvation and the redemption he won for us on the Cross. We also come to remind ourselves that we must be like him and to follow his example of service.
What Jesus communicated to the crowd that day and what he still communicates to us is the great love that he has for each one of us. He also communicates how just as he humbled himself 2,000+ years ago to come into the world as one of us he continues to humble himself by continuing to come to us. He does this through the Scriptures and through all of us as a community- the Church. After all, we see the Eucharistic preview through Jesus’ words and the words of St. Paul, in Scripture. We see the long arch of Salvation History that culminates in Jesus in the Scriptures. As a community, we have the privilege and the responsibility to participate and then extend this great act of humility and love to each other and then the wider community.
Jesus does use some stark language today, and it can be difficult to hear and for sure to comprehend. If we go with the wisdom theme of the first two readings, this is a wisdom that we have to pray about, learn, and experience. Some of us may have had a special experience of Jesus while receiving him in the Eucharist. Some of us may have doubts. During my journey, I’ve been in both camps. It’s hard to comprehend a love this deep- a love for us and this very flawed world. I’ve only come to understand a very small part of this mystery through faith. I hope to see the culmination of this mystery in heaven.
I’d like to end today with a prayer that St. Thomas Aquinas would say before mass. “Almighty and ever-living God, I approach the sacrament of Your only begotten Son Our Lord Jesus Christ, I come sick to the doctor of life, unclean to the fountain of mercy, blind to the radiance of eternal life, and poor and needy to the Lord of heaven and earth. Lord, in your great generosity, heal my sickness, wash away my defilement, enlighten my blindness, enrich my poverty, and clothe my nakedness. May I receive the bread of angels, the king of kings and Lord of lords, with humble reverence, with the purity and faith, the repentance and love, and the determined purpose that will will help to bring me to salvation. May I receive the sacrament of the Lord’s body and blood with its reality and power. Kind God, may I receive the Body of your only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, born from the womb of the Virgin Mary, and so be received into his mystical body and numbered among his members. Loving Father, as on my earthly pilgrimage I now receive Your beloved Son under the veil of a sacrament, may I one day see him face to face in glory, who lives and reigns with you forever. Amen.
