June 26th, 2011: Sunday Gospel Reflection

John 6:51-58

In today’s Gospel we read from Chapter 6 the Gospel of John, called the Bread of Life Discourse (I would recommend reading the whole passage from John 6:22-71). In this story a crowd follows Jesus in boats across the Sea of Galilee to track Him down.  He had recently performed the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 and many were amazed and wanted to listen to Him and see what He was going to do next. When they track Him down Jesus’ message is that the real miracle is not multiplying physical food but feeding people spiritually, “do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” The crowd did not understand and asked for another miracle from Jesus; they didn’t get it!

When Jesus continued to explain that He Himself was the bread, the food that endures, “my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink” the crowd got upset with Him and many went away disappointed because, “this teaching is hard to accept”. Instead of calling them back and clarifying that what He meant was figurative Jesus stayed on message and turned to ask His disciples if they would leave Him too. By God’s grace they did not leave Jesus (though they would not fully understand what Jesus meant until later).

At the Last Supper, the night before Jesus was put to death, Jesus instituted a ritual action to make Himself present with us even after His death and resurrection. “Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’”. Jesus’ disciples did what Jesus told them to “do this in remembrance of me”. From the earliest Christian writings we have accounts where the followers of Jesus would gather on Sundays and break bread; they celebrated Eucharist so that they may be strengthened by the Body and Blood of Jesus which St. Ignatius of Antioch (who was born less than 20 years after Jesus died) called the “medicine of immortality”. Through this ritual action handed down from Jesus through the Apostles, other Bishops, and priests for over two thousand years we are able to continue to celebrate the Eucharist. We receive the Eucharist every Sunday to be renewed and strengthened, to become what we already are, both individually and as a community: the Body of Christ. It is not always easy to see Jesus’ presence with our eyes but we take Jesus at His word that this is my body which was given up for us on the cross and continues to be given for us each Sunday.

Jesus cares intimately about you, wants to be near to you and has given us a way to nourish our bodies and souls. Thank you Jesus for the gift of yourself present in the Eucharist. I believe in You.

Gospel in Action

-Sometimes it is difficult to believe in something we cannot see. In these moments we can pray the prayer of St. Thomas (who had trouble believing in the Resurrection): “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief”