Corpus Christi
Dt 8: 2-3, 14b-16a; 1 Cor 10: 16-17; Jn 6: 51-58
Dc. Larry Brockman
What kind of food are you looking for? Are you looking for food that gives physical nourishment? Or are you looking for spiritual food that will guarantee you everlasting life? Today, Jesus establishes the fact that we can have it both ways!
In the first reading we see that the Israeli’s were just looking for a way to survive physically as they travelled for 40 years through a parched desert land devoid of grain and livestock and water. They prayed for deliverance. What they got was manna- a food unknown beforehand. But this manna was an interesting food. It was nourishing and satisfying if consumed right away. But, if it was collected and hoarded out of fear of starving, it would spoil and was useless. It was in God’s plan for the giving of the manna that He be trusted and believed in- He wanted the Israelis to trust that He would fulfill their need for survival, even if it was always just in time. And in that sense, this real food was spiritual food as much as physical food. The Israelis could not live without it- for it nourished them; but they could not live without believing in it either, because only by believing in it did they fulfill the hope for the future, sustenance long enough for their entry into the real promised land of Israel.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus describes spiritual food for the New Covenant- early in His public ministry, Jesus foretells what He would do at the last Supper, which was to institute the Eucharist, the real body and blood of Christ in the form of bread and wine. Just as with manna, this food provides hope for the future, but in this case, it is a guarantee of everlasting life, not just a longer life in this World.
Now, as the Gospel this morning testifies, Jesus made a very strong statement: He said that only those who ate His body and drank His blood would experience everlasting life! This was a stumbling block then; it has been a stumbling block all throughout Christianity; and it is a stumbling block today. The Jews in Jesus time were forbidden to drink the blood of an animal. So, this would have been strictly taboo for them. But consuming the Body and Blood of Christ also sounded like cannibalism when taken literally, and turned them off. And so, it turned many people away because of their Jewish laws and traditions. As the Gospel says, they quarreled about the teaching, and many walked away.
As Catholics, we recognize the ritual consecration of bread and wine at Mass as the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist because the events of the Last Super fulfilled the promise we read in this morning’s Gospel. In Christianity, most of the 16th century reformers rejected the idea of the Real Presence as hocus-pocus and unreal. They did so because they didn’t really believe- believe the truth of what Jesus said in this reading. They say one cannot take this scripture literally.
We Catholics have come to know, of course, that Jesus was serious. The Real Presence and the claim that it nourishes those who believe has been validated for us. Over the centuries two kinds of Eucharistic miracles have occurred that validate the Real Presence and its power. First, the bread and the wine has changed into real flesh and blood in some isolated cases. There are display cases in Southern Italy and videos of activities in Argentina in the last century that give examples of this. Second, every century or so, someone lives on the nourishment provided by daily Eucharist alone. St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Nicholas of Flue, and Blessed Alejandrina Maria da Costa are all examples. Skeptics are quick to discount these miracles as isolated incidents. But, for those who believe, they are proof of the power of the Eucharist.
This power can be experienced by all of us who believe in Jesus words and deeds without having to see the transformation, or to live out the fact of the exclusive nourishment. This is precisely because Faith is believing in things unseen. And that is what we are called to do- to have Faith. Life in this world is not what Life is all about. Life in this world is about recognizing the existence of God, and the fact of everlasting life in the Kingdom of God for those who believe in Him. We need food, we need nourishment, for that Heavenly kingdom. When we believe in and consume the Eucharist with this mindset, then it nourishes us for the Kingdom of God just as literally as it provided bodily nourishment in the lives of the saints we mentioned.
In just a few minutes, all of you will receive the Body of Christ. I pray that all of you will recognize its power. Because what we truly need in this life Is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control- the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit. These are what sustain us in our quest for the Kingdom of God. These are part of the nourishment, the spiritual food, all of us need to succeed in this life so we can live in joy in the next.
