Homily
for the
20th
Sunday of Ordinary Time
Aug.
18, 2024
John
6: 51-58
The
Fountains, Tuckahoe
St.
Francis Xavier, Bronx
Our
Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
“The
bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (John 6: 51).
Our gospel picks up where we were last week by repeating last week’s final verse. Jesus, as reported by St. John, is transitioning in his address to the people who followed him to the synagog at Capernaum. He was speaking metaphorically of himself as the bread come down from heaven, better than the manna that Moses gave to the Israelites in the desert. He is the living Word of God.
Now he
takes us a step further, going beyond metaphor, going beyond symbolic language: “The bread that I’ll give is my flesh, and
this bread will give you life. Unless
you eat the flesh of the Son of Man…, you don’t have life within you” (6:51,53).
Jesus’ listeners understand immediately that
he’s speaking about actually eating his flesh.
The Greek verb St. John uses means real eating food:
munching, chewing, gnawing on. No
symbolism.
No wonder
the people react: “How can this man give
us his flesh to eat?” (6:52). It sounds
like cannibalism. It certainly doesn’t
sound like a wonderful gift for everyone listening, even if the previous
day Jesus had fed 5,000 men plus women and children with a handful of loaves.
But Jesus
restates himself: “Whoever eats my flesh
and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I’ll raise him on the last day”
(6:54); and he says it twice more. He
really means what he’s saying.
What’s
not clear is how Jesus will do this. How
will he give us his real flesh to eat and his actual blood to drink—not
symbolically? He’ll make that clear at
the Last Supper, when he takes bread and says, “This is my body” (Mark 14:22),
and takes the cup of wine and tells us, “This is my blood of the covenant,
which is poured out for many” (Mark 14:24).
Bread becomes his flesh, wine becomes his blood. The discourse in the synagog at Capernaum
explains his action at the Last Supper.
His action at the Last Supper explains his words in the synagog. The body that died on the cross and the blood
that was shed on the cross came to new life on Easter Sunday, promising a share
in his risen life to all who eat that same flesh, true food, and drink that
same blood, true drink (cf. John 6:55).
This body and this blood are life-affirming, life-giving, because they are
the living body and blood of God’s own Son, and “whoever feeds on me will have
life because of me” (6:57).
That,
sisters and brothers, is why we come to the Eucharist. Many of you know, maybe most of you, that in
our country we’re having a 3-year Eucharistic revival. Every Sunday is a Eucharistic revival. Every Sunday Jesus revives us; he gives us
new life, his own life; he gives us his very self. One columnist wrote last week: “In the holy Eucharist the same Jesus who was
within Mary’s womb, whom St. Joseph held in his strong arms, who traveled with
the Holy Family on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, who crisscrossed the ancient Holy
Land with the disciples and apostles and who has gone ahead of us to the Father’s
house, journeys with us.”[1]
“Whoever
eats this bread will live forever” (6:58).
No comments:
Post a Comment