For my flesh is true food,
and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him.
The honest question is, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" We're used to it and accept it, but we often don't realize the magnitude of what Jesus gives us. This is not a gift that anyone but Jesus can give. But why this gift? He is our sacrifice. We share in the sacrificial meal to return to unity with God. And so Jesus is our peace. But even then we might ask why sacrifice works this way.
Food is integral to the created order we experience. From food we receive strength and life. Without it we don't last long. Societies and cultures are built around the production and distribution of food before all else. It is the basis necessary for them to last. A famine can quickly wipe out a people unprepared for it. Families too organize around food.
Jesus himself wants to fulfill our hunger and thirst. He is showing us by this gift that spiritual hunger and thirst matter even more than our physical hunger. We can't do without the spiritual strength he gives. Normal food is both essential and yet ordinary. The bread which Jesus gives is even more essential and meant to form the basis around which we build our lives.
Wisdom has built her house,
she has set up her seven columns;
she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine,
yes, she has spread her table.
Jesus wants us to learn to make him our true desire even more than any physical desires we have. It is not that we shun all fulfillment of desire in the Christian life. It is rather that we choose higher things that can truly satisfy.
And do not get drunk on wine, in which lies debauchery,
but be filled with the Spirit,
addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts,
giving thanks always and for everything
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.
So let us taste the sober intoxication of the Spirit. People around us should be genuinely surprised by how deeply the LORD wants to penetrate our hearts and satisfy us. They may say without comprehending, "They are filled with new wine." But no, "For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day" (see Acts 2:14-15). We are drunk not with wine, but with the Spirit.
He who eats it with faith, eats Fire and Spirit
- Saint John Paul the Great.
Jesus humbles himself to be bread and wine because he wants to be everything to us. He wants us to see that we are meant to find our fulfillment in him. We are made for him.
Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
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