At that time, Jesus said to the crowds of Jews: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give is my flesh, given for the life of the world. » The Jews quarreled among themselves: “How can this one give us his flesh to eat? » Then Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. Indeed, my flesh is the true food, and my blood is the true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father has sent me, and I live through the Father, so he who eats me will also live through me. This is the bread that came down from heaven: it is not like that which the fathers ate. They are dead; whoever eats this bread will live forever. »
Other readings: Dt 8, 2-3.14b-16a; Ps 147 (147 B); 1 Cor 10:16-17.
To understand
“Eat my flesh”
If we were not so jaded by hearing the traditional Christian discourse on the Eucharist, we too would be shocked, like Jesus’ listeners: “How can this one give us his flesh to eat? » How can we invite ourselves into what, from the outside, looks like horrible cannibalism? Why does Jesus, at the risk of shocking, repeat six times, in this passage from the Gospel, that we must “eat his flesh”?
Certainly, “flesh” in biblical language can designate the whole person. In this case, Jesus would be talking about the gift of his whole person, of his whole life. But if Christ specifically invites us to “eat his flesh”, perhaps it is also to make us understand that he is the Lamb of the Hebrews, the sacrificial lamb, whose flesh the people had “eaten” during their liberation from Egypt (Ex 12:8). This lamb announced the true Passover, the liberating sacrifice made by Christ on the Cross. By inviting us to “eat his flesh”, Christ tells us: “I am the Passover Lamb! In the gift of my life, God frees you from all your slavery! »
Meditate
Eat his flesh to be released in his Body
Jesus thus presents himself as the Passover lamb. In the Gospel of John, it is precisely at the moment when the priests offer the Easter sacrifice in the Temple that Christ dies on the Cross. The liberation announced in the Exodus is truly accomplished in the gift of his life, a gift by which Christ conquers death and opens the doors of resurrection.
In our parishes or at the monastery, by receiving the Eucharist, we are called to associate ourselves with this gift of self. Jesus tells us that it is by “eating his flesh” that we can “have his life” and “abide in him.” As Saint Augustine so well points out, “when you eat this food and drink this drink, they change in you; so you also are changed into the body of Christ. (…) Begin to receive what you have begun to be” (Sermon Denis 3, 3).
The very realistic language of Jesus inviting us to “eat our flesh” can be shocking. True, you don’t get used to it; newbie, you may be surprised. He makes us understand that this is a moment of unity: we are called to be one body with Him. By receiving the body of the Eucharistic Christ, we bring forth his body which is the Church.
Then we can associate ourselves with what Jesus accomplished on the Cross. Offer ourselves out of love for our neighbor. Giving ourselves, in large or small actions, by going to the ends of the earth or, like Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, by “picking up a needle” for love.
Having become his body by eating his “flesh”, we then experience the true Passover, the exit from the slavery of Egypt; we are freed from our great or small slavery, by remaining united to the Paschal Lamb.
Pray
Lord Jesus, this flesh that you give me to eat is your life offered. I am so far from knowing how to feed myself with it and yet you give yourself to receive with a simplicity that disarms me.
You are this bread of the Eucharist, evident on a table and so mysterious in your Church, to which it makes me belong more.
This meal taken in your Presence is a force for loving. Beyond sharing, I feel carried away towards the gift of myself.
Will I dare, Lord, to go all the way with you? Will I hear the voice of Easter speaking to me about the end of slavery and the banquet of the Lamb?
Welcome the offering of my prayer as a sinner hungry for your new life when I receive you at the Eucharist.
