Becoming What We Eat

20^th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Pr 9, 1-6 / Eph 5, 15-20 / John6, 51-58

For four Sundays straight we have been reflecting on the sixth chapter of John’s gospel.  Today’s reading really amounts to the centerpiece of the chapter.  Here Jesus says: I am the living bread… whoever eats this bread will live forever… will have eternal life.  What Jesus is saying here anticipates what he will say and do at the Last Supper.  And it also anticipates what we will say and do at this Eucharist today.  Take and eat – my body.  Take and drink – my blood.  He could not be more clear or graphic.  Eat!  Drink!  Basic things.  What is Jesus saying to us?  What does he want for us?

Eating and drinking involve tasting and taking in.  They require chewing, swallowing, digesting.  Jesus is saying to us:  you take me in by taking into yourself my way of life, my lifestyle, my values.  And when you have chewed on my ways and digested my values, then eventually you will assimilate my vision of life – my understanding of what it means to be a human being.  And that’s when I become truly your bread of life – the bread for your living.  Elsewhere in John’s gospel Jesus says the very same thing but puts it this way:  I become your way, your truth and your life.

So what happens here at our Sunday Eucharist?  What are we doing here?  What happens is that we are fed the bread for our living in the word of God proclaimed and preached and in the sacramental signs of bread and wine.  Through these we have communion with the “Lord of our lives”.  And we make our commitment to let him become our way, our truth and our life in the journey ahead of us.

But – and this is a crucially important “but” – it’s what happens after our Sunday Eucharist that is the main event in our lives.  The main event is our daily lives – our real lives!  It’s on that journey that we really digest the bread of life.  It’s on that daily journey that Jesus really becomes our way, our truth and our life.

 

An example.  We say to one another here in church at the Eucharist: “the peace of Christ”.  What we say must become what we do for one another and for our world.  Our world is so easily fascinated by conflict, so easily convinced of the value of violent actions and words.  Our world, and yes, at times our church – seem so ready to reply with power’s answer – not love’s.  Power seeks its own advantage.  Love gives itself away.  To this world and this church we must bring and nurture Jesus’ peace, Jesus’ Shalom.  Our holiness must happen in the streets.  There is where Jesus will detox our unpeaceful imaginations and set us free from our self-absorbed dream of a loveless lifestyle.

We will know ourselves detoxed – know ourselves saved – know ourselves feeding on the bread of life – when we begin to sense from within us an honest joy in our making decisions that are love-giving – for others – decisions that are life-giving – for others.  Then, like Jesus, we will be living for the life of the world.  And therein will be our joy.

Fr. Pat Earl, SJ