AFTER making believers wrestle with the core Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity in last Sunday’s gospel, the Church, in this Sunday’s gospel (Jn. 6:51-58), invites us to ponder on the not-so-easy teaching on eating the body of Jesus and drinking his blood, the Eucharist, Holy Communion, Holy Meal, or other names or titles which several church traditions have attached to it through the ages.
The Old Testament story of God, feeding the Israelites with manna or bread that is rained down from heaven during their forty years’ journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, as recorded in the First Reading (Dt. 8:2-3, 14B-16A), was given as the backdrop.
Tested by affliction, especially of hunger, God came to the rescue of his people. One thing sure, God sustained their physical bodies with food, but their spirits God also sustained through their trials, impressing in them the very important lesson “that man lives not by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
The Israelites ate their physical bread, but at the proper time, each one of them experienced physical death. Jesus, in the gospel, tells his Jewish hearers, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
Going further, he identifies what this bread is, and that is, his own flesh. To his flesh, he now adds his blood, saying, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”
When we receive Holy Communion, do we believe that we indeed eat his flesh? Do we believe that the bread has now been transubstantiated into the real body of our Lord Jesus Christ? Or do we believe that bread remains bread and that in Holy Communion, Jesus is only consubstantially present with the bread? And moving to the other extreme, do we believe that the bread at Communion remains as bread and functions as a mere symbol or a memorial to the body of Christ?
Diversity of beliefs shows us how the Christian Church has struggled long and hard in interpreting the meaning of this Sunday’s gospel. My Catholic faith tells me that at Holy Communion, I receive the fullness of Christ, his body and blood, soul and Divinity. My Protestant brothers and sisters, on the other hand, may attach meanings in the various shades of the spectrum ranging from real presence to mere memorial.
Wherever we stand in this plethora of ideas, I opine that God will honor our faith. One thing sure, the Holy Spirit will lead us to the fullness of truth if we only ask him to do so.
Despite the differences in beliefs, may the Eucharist bind us as one, in unity with the Lord and with each other. As St. Paul, in the Second Reading (1 Cor. 10:16-17), reminds us: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is not a participation in the body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the loaf.”
In faith may we truly receive the real body and blood of Christ.