“This saying is hard; who can accept it?”
Those accustomed to the preaching of Jesus were used to difficult metaphors that they didn't fully understand. The disciples were known to ask Jesus to explain his parables when they were unsure of the meaning. They didn't feel the need to leave him when he said that he was a vine or a gate. They sensed those things could have meaning as metaphors even if they didn't fully understand them. They knew that the different types of soil in the parable of the sower could be explained even if they themselves did not immediately know to what they referred. This teaching was different. They correctly understood that Jesus was not speaking metaphorically, that no metaphor would fully do justice to the teaching.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (see John 6:51).
When the crowds grumbled he did not simply explain himself away. He might have said he meant that his life would be a sacrifice for sins and that everyone would need to own that sacrifice for themselves, taking it into their heart, and therefore be united with other believers who did the same. This is perhaps the best metaphorically interpretation that can be put forward. But Jesus did not do this, even though people who were previously following him as disciples left him because of exactly this point. Instead, he doubled down on the realism of his teaching. The crowd interpreted him in one way, and rather than clarifying, he pushed further into precisely that interpretation. He spoke with graphic realism of the need to gnaw on his flesh, not as taking something into oneself symbolically, but even as an animal would gnaw on its feed.
Does this shock you?
We are meant to be shocked. We are meant to have our faith tested. What Jesus was here revealing was something that would be of massive importance to those who would receive it but which would be, as with he himself, a stumbling block to those who wouldn't approach the teaching with faith.
as it is written, "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame" (see Romans 9:33).
What Jesus meant when he said that his words were Spirit and life was not that he was speaking symbolically. He meant that his words could only be understood in the light of faith that is a gift of the Holy Spirit. This was true when he was speaking symbolically, as with parables, but all the more so when he was revealing the deepest mysteries, as with his teaching here on the Eucharist.
The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.
Let us repeat, there was no reason to shock the crowds and drive them away as Jesus did except to make the obvious point, that his flesh was true food and his blood was true drink, that he himself would be present, body, blood, soul, and divinity, in the Eucharistic feast. But that mystery remains concealed from the senses of all, even those who believe. In order to approach it at all we must allow the Father to draw us.
“For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me
unless it is granted him by my Father.”
We must be willing, even we who hold the orthodox teaching, and can use words like transubstantiation, to not fully understand every aspect of this mystery. It is too deeply entwined with the incarnation of the Word as flesh, and the mystery of the Triune nature of God for us to every fully fathom it. In our daily lives we are presented again and again with the accidents of bread and wine. Each time we see, touch, and taste these we are called to make a new act of faith that pushes past our human limits in a way not dissimilar to the faith act made by Peter.
Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe
and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”
It is when we make an act of faith, like that of Peter, in Jesus revealed in the Eucharist, that the blessings concealed from sight begin to be revealed to us. It is not as though we achieve it through figuring out the precise theological science of it, though that helps to keep us pointed in the right direction. It is always surrender that is the most essential thing, not blindly, but in the direction the Father is guiding us, into the arms of the savior.
There is much that can draw us away from faith in the Eucharist. May we be like Joshua, willing to make a break of our own modern idols so that we can embrace the living God.
For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God (see First Thessalonians 1:9).
What are the vain delights that charm us most? What are the idols that pull our attention away from complete trust in the words of Spirit and life that Jesus spoke? Is it money, media, or pleasure? Is it pride, or perhaps fear? Even smaller sins are potentially the beginning stages of idolatry, which is where we become addicted to sin in such a way as to be mastered by it. Sin makes it difficult to approach Jesus in the Eucharist because the freedom of selfless love found there is so contrary to the it. When we really place such sins before God they become true idols and make it impossible for us to approach the Eucharistic throne without prior sacramental confession. Let's not let it come to that, but declare with Joshua:
As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.
There is a powerful unity that can be built in the Church around faith in the Eucharist. It is the unity of the bride and the bridegroom, the head and the body, and therefore of all of the members of the body with one another. Because of this we can learn about the meaning of marriage from the Eucharist, and in turn we can learn about the meaning of the Eucharist from observing the unity of love present in holy marriages.
This is a great mystery,
but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.
Today we are called to declare our faith in Jesus and his words, even when they go beyond our ability to fully understand them. We are called to let his Father draw us more deeply into the mystery, and therefore into the union with himself which has always been his plan for us.
Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
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