This week we
come to the climax on the discourse of Bread of Life. But this is not the last
Sunday that we have a reading from this chapter. Next week we’ll consider the disciples
suggestion that Jesus “tone down” his teaching.
That’s the conclusion. Today we
have the climax[1].
The attraction of the Eucharist is dynamic. Jesus is dynamic. When we receive communion
or when we come to pray before the Blessed Sacrament, we don’t receive an
inanimate object. We don’t kneel before a static entity. This is not a crucifix or a statue that
reminds us of something. This is Jesus. The One Who Is. When we receive communion or come to
adoration, we take within ourselves or we come before the dynamic, powerful
Presence who speaks to us through the life He has given us.
How great is our God. He has found a way for each of
us to have continual, intimate encounters with Him. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
wrotes that the Eucharist is the Dynamic Presence that grasps us and makes us
His Own.
The fundamental action of Jesus’s life, the reason why
He became one of us, was the gift of Himself in His passion, death and resurrection:
the Paschal Event. The gift of His sacrificial love re-established our union
with God and our capacity to share in his immortality. Or to put it simply:
because He died for us we can live forever with him.
When Jesus gave us his Body and Blood the night before
He died and when he gives us His Body and Blood every time we receive
communion, the Lord gives us the total sacrifice of Himself to his Father. This is
my Body which shall be given up for you.
This is the cup of my Blood, the new and everlasting covenant that shall
be shed for you and for all until the end of time. When we receive the
Eucharist, Jesus is present as the Servant of God who in His sacrificial death
is saving us all. Right here, right
now. Today’s Gospel states: The one who feeds on my flesh and drinks my
blood has life eternal. In the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist we
receive Jesus saving His people, saving us now. We receive Christ strengthening
us and transforming our joys and sorrows into prayers to His Father.
Our union with Christ in the Eucharist is union with
Christ in passion, death and resurrection. Sometimes we are full of the joy of
the Resurrection, sometimes the sorrow of the Passion, but always we are
strengthened by the one who gives us His Body and Blood. The Lord is always in action. His Presence is dynamic.
The first reading speaks about the Wisdom of God. God has built a house and invited us to a
dinner, “come and eat and drink and live
forever, He says. He gives us the
dream of living in peace and happiness totally united to Him for all eternity.
The marvelous paradox of our Eucharistic relationship
with the Lord is that the more we have Him, the hungrier we are for Him. Only God in His Infinite Wisdom could find a
way to satisfy our hungry hearts while leaving us even hungrier for Him. We
can’t get enough of Him. We never will
until we are fully united to Him in heaven.
[1] Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), Lectionary: 119. Readings: Proverbs
9:1-6; Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58.
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