The Pastor’s Reflections

The sixth chapter of John’s gospel ends with a serious split among the disciples of Jesus after he presented his central teaching to them. “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” This brought his followers to a crossroad. They found this a hard saying, difficult to accept. As a result, “Many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.”

Jesus turned to his inner court, the apostles, and asked them if they were going to leave him, too? Peter answered for the group. “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Today, I think we need to grasp on to Peter’s answer. We’re standing at the same crossroads that those disciples stood at that day. Many who identified themselves as Christians are searching. They haven’t interiorized Jesus’ teachings. They’re hoping to discover an easy, feel-good message that will make them “happy.” Think about it. How many of your friends and relatives have left the Church to go out shopping for a more meaningful message. I’ve heard so many excuses. The Church is out of touch with the times. There’s too much ritual. The priest’s message doesn’t speak to me.

Add to that the disconnect with the Christian community. My kids have their sports programs on Sunday I can’t go to church. We go away on weekends. We don’t know anybody in the church.

I know I’m preaching to the choir – and for a purpose. You’re the ones who will best carry the message of Jesus to those who are searching. But first you need to be in communion with his word. So many times, I’ve mentioned that the central teachings of Jesus that can be found in a tight package in the gospel of Matthew – chapters 5, 6 and 7. Please, read these chapters. Pray with them, over, and over again. Digest the teachings. Share them in your own unique way. Don’t be afraid to be light for the world.

Discover Jesus in the gospel of John, the mystical gospel. Meditate on the “I am” statements. You don’t need a guide – just an open heart to receive him. I am the Good Shepherd, the Vine, the Door, the Light of the World, the Bread of Life, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Let’s end with a quote from Matthew’s gospel. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7)

You’re reading this reflection you’re connecting with Jesus’ message. Think of all those who have lost the foundation

Are you shaky? – do you understand what the eucharist is?

The Pastor’s Reflections

We’ve been reflecting on the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel at the Sunday Liturgy for three weeks. It will conclude with next Sunday’s Gospel when we see Jesus abandoned by many of his followers because they didn’t understand his teaching. “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.”

His teaching was a challenge to his disciples then, and is still a challenge to us today. What do we really believe? When we gather for the celebration of the Eucharist what do we expect? Here’s what I believe.

On Sunday, we believers gather to renew our faith. We praise God, recall our individual and communal struggles, ask for the strength and courage, and then listen to the Word of God in the scripture. This is the appetizer segment of our Eucharistic meal. It’s our response to Jesus’ teaching, “No one lives on bread alone, but on every WORD that comes from the mouth of God.” We feed ourselves with this Word and receive instruction and moral guidance.

I try, in the homily, to focus a simple and useful lesson from the three readings. The early Christian community read the scripture, the Old Testament, with a discerning eye searching for images of Jesus in the prophecies and the law. This is how they began to form a theology of Jesus, what we call Christology. Our personal knowledge of Christ develops in the same way. We learn more and more about him not only from the Old Testa-

ment but through the insights of our New Testament as well.

After we’ve fed ourselves at the table of the Word, we approach the eucharistic table where we eat the bread of life and drink from the cup of the new covenant. This communion unites us with God and solidifies our communion with each other, binding us as a community of faith. As we eat the eucharistic bread we ‘re nourished with the living reality of the resurrected Christ. When we drink the cup of the new covenant we participate in the mystery of Christ’s redemption – Christ eternally giving himself for the life of the world. We speak his words at each Eucharist: “Do this in memory of me.” At each Eucharist he reminds us to do what he did, to pour out ourselves in loving service to one another – to wash one another’s feet.

Let’s end this reflection with a final word from Jesus himself. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me, and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

The Pastor’s Reflections

This week we’re going to focus our reflection on one sentence from John’s Gospel. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

John wrote his Gospel between 90 AD and 100 AD. It’s very different from the three other Gospels. One very notable difference is the account of the Last Supper. In John’s Gospel Jesus doesn’t take bread and wine and say, “This is my body,” “This is my blood.” Instead, he delivers a lengthy teaching culminating with his washing the feet of the disciples. It’s in chapter six of his Gospel that we’re presented with Jesus’ teaching about the Eucharist. In this chapter he never mentions “This is my body,” “This is my blood.” Instead, he delivers what has become to be known as the Bread of Life Discourse, which culminates in the sentence I noted at the beginning of this reflection. Let’s unpack the meaning of this beautiful and powerful teaching.

Jesus teaches that he’s “the living bread

that came down from heaven.” This is a reference to the exodus journey. God fed the people with manna, “the bread from heaven.” This bread was a pledge of God’s loving care for the children of Israel and their food during their journey to the Promised Land. Jesus applied this image to himself re-defining the bread from heaven. It isn’t bread that fills a hungry stomach. He, himself, is the food for life’s journey. He, himself, is LIVING bread. Jesus intensifies this powerful image even more by stressing: “the bread that I will give is MY FLESH for the life of the world.”

In John’s Gospel, the Last Supper takes place the day before the Passover when, as Mark’s Gospel tells us, “they sacrificed the Passover Lamb.” (Mark 14:12) This is implying that Jesus is the true Passover Lamb, whose sacrifice will bring life to the entire world. In the context of this teaching, we mustn’t forget that the Passover Lamb was not only to be slain, it was to be eaten. Jesus reinforced this when he said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” The implications of this teaching are astounding.

Over and over again during the Eucharistic Liturgy we hear the term the Paschal Mystery. The Bread of Life Discourse defines this mystery. It takes the image of the Passover Lamb, slaughtered and eaten, and applies it to the person of Jesus. We’ve all heard the statement: “You are what you eat.” In the Eucharistic celebration we proclaim the death of the Lord – his sacrifice on the cross-AND we eat his flesh and drink his blood in the Eucharistic bread and wine. This is the fulfillment of the first Passover.

Jesus is the true and eternal Passover Lamb, sacrificed and eaten by those who believe in him. Our communion with him unites us in communion with the Father, also. By eating his flesh and drinking his blood we become him, and he becomes us.

Let’s conclude this reflection by adding one more level to this mystery. We must always be mindful of our vocation as believers. Christ continues to mold the world into the kingdom of God through the work of his disciples who remain in communion with him. Let’s never forget his teaching in Matthew 10:40: “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes him who sent me.”

The Pastor’s Reflections

Let’s begin our reflection today by looking at the first reading for the day, a passage from the book of Exodus. The people were getting desperate because they had no food. God reassured both Moses and the people of his unfailing commitment to them.

God had proved his loyalty to them throughout their journey. He fed them with manna in the morning, and in the evening with quail. At one point there was no water, so God told Moses to strike a rock. Water gushed forth.

The children of Israel had a special place in God’s heart, but they struggled with that relationship. During their forty-year sojourn in desert they would be challenged to submit totally to God. For this relationship to blossom they would have to acknowledge their ultimate powerlessness.

In the gospel passage we see a similar situation. Jesus had just fed five thousand people with five barley loaves and two fish. He then left the people and sailed to Capernaum. Excited by this miracle, the people got into boats and followed him.

Jesus intuited that they still hadn’t understood the meaning of the event. So, he tried to clarify it for them. “You are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but the food that endures for

eternal life.” They retorted by recalling that Moses had given them bread from heaven. Jesus came back at them.

“It was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

Still not understanding. Still thinking only of food for their stomachs, they pleaded with him: “Give us this bread always.” He was offering them another bread, the bread of life, but they lacked the faith to receive it. They had to open their hearts to eat this bread, not their mouths. He shared a final teaching with them. “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

What can we learn from these readings? To accept the bread of life, we first have to empty our hearts of our human desires. We need to submit to God. We need to acknowledge our powerlessness and rejoice in our total dependence on God. Only then will we come to recognize the profound hunger we have for God. Only then, can God satiate that hunger with the bread from heaven, his very life. Only then can we become like him. Only then can we see him as he is. Only then can we say with Saint Paul, “I no longer live; Christ lives in me.”