20th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Gospel Reading: John 6: 51 - 58

51 Jesus said to the crowd: “I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that 1 shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.”
52 Then the Jews started arguing with one another: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”  they said.
53 Jesus replied: “I tell you most solemnly, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you.
54 Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise him up on the last day.
55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
56 He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him.
57 As I, who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me.
58 This is the bread come down from heaven; not like the bread our ancestors ate: they are dead, but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.”

Meditation

This is the fourth passage from chapter six of John's gospel. It is the third in. which Jesus gives the people a teaching based on their experience of the miraculous feeding.

Some themes are repeated in all these passages, and yet each passage has its own dominant theme running through it. In the two previous passages Jesus presented himself to the people as 'bread come down from heaven'. In this one, he pushes the metaphor further : he gives them his flesh to eat and his blood to drink.

You may find the metaphor strange, but you should try to enter into it, so that it becomes part of your prayer. Remember that in Bible meditation it is not sufficient to get the meaning of a passage; you must get into the words themselves and grow to love them so that you feel moved to repeat them many times.

The metaphor has its origins in 'flesh and blood', the biblical expression that means the reality of a human being, with a special stress on his or her weakness or limitations.

For example, when in chapter 16 of Matthew Peter made his act of faith, it did not come from 'flesh and blood', but as a gift from God. So, too, St Paul warned the Ephesians that their struggle was not merely against 'flesh and blood', but against heavenly forces.

When Jesus says that he gives his flesh to eat and his blood to drink, he is saying three things.

• The first is that he gives himself totally to others; every part of his being is at their service. It is the same as saying 'This is my body given for you.'
• Secondly, he is inviting people to deep union with himself, to 'have his spirit coursing through their souls so that they can know the passion of his love for every one', as we sing in the hymn 'To be the Body of the Lord.'
• Thirdly, he wants them to unite their weakness and their suf­ferings with his so that they can experience his strength and his courage. As he would say to them at the Last Supper, 'In the world you will have trouble, but be brave, I have conquered the world.' When we eat his flesh and drink his blood, our own flesh and blood are ennobled. St Paul says it in 2 Corinthians: 'We carry with us in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus too may always be seen in our body.'

The passage is therefore a meditation on Jesus as teacher, leader and guide. In alt three roles he does not stand outside of people - he wants to share their lives and to have them share his.

Now this tells us something about God. Whereas we tend to imagine God in heaven looking down on us but not getting in­volved in the movement of our history, Jesus shows God enter­ing into flesh and blood with us.

But the passage also tells us about human relationships. In your meditation remember with gratitude people who have been Jesus for you - a parent, a spiritual guide, a friend, a nat­ional leader. Naturally you will feel the passage calling you to grow in your own relationships.

Finally, a good meditation on this passage will help you to appreciate the Eucharist. It will show you why Jesus chose to be present in the church under the form of bread and wine.

It is not possible to meditate on a passage such as this one all to­gether: take one section at a time and enter into it, letting it speak to your experience. I suggest dividing the passage as follows:

• Verses 51 and 52: the people are questioning the very possi­bility of someone giving himself totally, as Jesus claims to do. Their response is cynical, but is it not typical of the way many would respond today?
• Verse 52 invites us to think of people who have no life in them, and to go to the root cause - they have never experienced, or perhaps have never let themselves experience, the kind of selfless love that Jesus gives.
• Verse 54 introduces the theme we have met several times in the chapter: deep relationship with God in Jesus lifts us up be­yond the limitations of time and history.
• In verse 55 we remember that there is false food and drink and to recognise them we can look at what relationship with Jesus does to us.
• Verse 56 teaches us the effect of love, the love of Jesus, as well as of all those who love selflessly.
• In verse 57 we see another effect of selfless love. Here, as frequently in St John's gospel, Jesus' relationship with his fol­lowers is similar to his relationship with his Father - 'as the Father has sent me so I am sending you'; 'as the Father loves meI have loved you.
• In verse 58 we see again the theme of the newness of Jesus' teaching.

Prayer

Lord, we remember with gratitude
The day when we realised for the first time that following Jesus meant eating his flesh and drinking his blood.
Up to then it was a matter of believing abstract truths  that Jesus was truly God and truly man, that there are three persons in God and seven sacraments,
That kind of faith was not a source of life for us.
Then one day we knew that we had to lay down our lives

• caring for a wayward child,

• working for reconciliation in the workplace and being at­tacked by both workers and employers;

• forgiving someone who had hurt us deeply.

At that moment we knew that Jesus on the cross was present within us,
and the strange thing was that wefelt an inner strength and freedom, and we were certain that no matter how low we fell he would raise us up.

Lord, self-centredness has become like a first principle of living today.
People will argue with one another that it is not even possible for us to give our flesh to be eaten, and yet there can be no life in the world without selfless giving, not in nature, not in families, not in any society.
Lord, we pray for those who are mourning for a loved one. Remind them that Jesus gave them his flesh to eat and his blood to drink
and he will raise them up on the last day.

“ I should like to set down here my own belief. In so far as I am willing to be made an instrument of God's peace, in that far have I already en­tered into eternal life.'
Alan Paton

Lord, we thank you for those who eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus and therefore already have eternal life.

“ We need the eyes of deep faith to see Christ in the broken bodies and dirty clothes under which the most beautiful one among the sons of men hides.”
Mother Teresa

Lord, help us to receive Jesus when he comes to us in flesh and blood.
Lord, you give us food and drink so that we might live more freely and creatively.
Yet we nourish ourselves with many things that are not life-giving at all, but rather clutter up our lives and keep us in bondage.
We pray that your Christ may be Jesus today, giving the world real food and drink.
Lord, we thank you for the people who have touched our lives; when we read the story of Jesus we see them living in him, and when we remember their stories, we see Jesus living in them.
Truly they have eaten his flesh and drunk his blood.
Lord, we talk too much when we pray.
Teach us to remain silent, so that we become conscious of Jesus present within us and the life he draws from you may well up in us too.
Lord, we think today of those who see their spouses destroying themselves
with bitterness, envy or false pride.
With anguish in their hearts, they say to them, as Jesus said to his followers,
'Unless you allow yourself to receive selfless love, you will not have life within you
Lord, we pray for the people of South Africa, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia.
For generations their ancestors ate the bread of suspicion, fear and hatred, and they are dead.
We thank you that you are raising up new leaders those countries,
and they, like Jesus, are offering their people a different kind of nourishment,
based on reconciliation and sharing, bread come down from heaven, that they can eat it and live.