20th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Proverbs 9:1-6
Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7
Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-58
Skepticism can be a useful tool in the effort to understand the world. However, when we are learning about something beyond our experience, we must set aside our reticence. If we measure always according to our previous experience, we will never be open to something new. Eucharist is among those realities that stretch beyond our understanding, offering us something greater than we could ever imagine.
The first objection to Jesus’ teaching on the Eucharist comes from the kind of skepticism that is closed rather than a useful tool for learning. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” To desire to comprehend something, asking “why?” or “how?” is praiseworthy. However, when the Lord of Life is speaking, we must first start with assent that what He says to us is true. To deny that Eucharist is Jesus or that He can give us His very flesh as food stands in the way of the gift being offered.
The answer to the question that is asked is the same answer that Mary is given at the Annunciation: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” God can do this by His own power and will. When we choose to deny that Eucharist is Jesus Himself, risen, ascended and glorified, we close ourselves off from the truth that has been revealed.
Jesus meets the skepticism, not with an answer to the disbelief but with a renewal of His claim: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”
There is an invitation like that proclaimed by Wisdom: “to the one who lacks understanding, she says, come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed! Forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding.” The Letter to the Ephesians likewise invites us to a wisdom that comes from God: “Therefore, do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand what is the will of the Lord. … (B)e filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.”
If we accept the truth being taught, we can perceive something more. Eating and drinking the Eucharist, we are given a new relationship with Jesus. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” We become one with Him. We are in Him and He is in us.
Jesus goes on: “Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” He does in us what the Father has done in Him. Being one with the Father is the very identity of the Son; He shares this unity with us when we allow Him to enter, through faith in Him and through consuming Him in the Eucharist. We who eat this bread experience life, the life that will never end.
The Eucharist is not a mere “thing” outside of us that we can take or leave, believe or deny, without consequences. When we set aside skepticism and rejection, we open ourselves to a new reality. When we believe and receive with faith, we are ready to enter life. Then, our responsibility is to live our faith and to invite others to share it by the witness we give. No one can ever be brought to faith by mere argument. Jesus Himself simply stated and affirmed what He said. Then He waited for a response, even as He promised the reward of life.