Friday in the Third Week of Easter, May 6, 2022

John 6, 52-59

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?” 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 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. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him. 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.” These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

“How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?”  The Jews felt amazement and disgust at the Lord’s insistence that those who sought eternal life must eat his Flesh and drink his Blood.  They felt this way because they failed to reckon who it was who was speaking to them.  The Lord Jesus had prefaced his teaching with two substantial and undeniable miracles.  The people to who he was speaking, or most of them, had witnessed the multiplication of the loaves and fish, and had understood that the Lord had transported himself miraculously across the sea to Capernaum during the night.  This was no ordinary man.  The people should have asked the Lord to explain to them further what he meant, but they preferred only to “quarrel among themselves”.

“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.”  Jesus repeats himself so as to emphasize their need to do this.  He also makes it clear that he is not speaking metaphorically.  At the same time, his reiteration was meant to provoke the people to ask him, How will you give us your Flesh to eat?  “Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”  Jesus says “has eternal life”, not “will have”.  The one who eats his Flesh and drinks his Blood already possesses eternal life.  Death is no more the end of that person, but a passageway.  You and I already possess eternal life.  “For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink.”  The Greek word translated as “food” here could also be translated as “a meal”.  The Lord is clearly stating that his very Flesh is for us to eat and his Blood to drink.  

“Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him.”  The Greek word translated here as “remain” also means “to abide”, “to stay at or with”, and “to stop” at a place.  We see it used in the Gospel of St. John when Andrew and John, having heard John the Baptist declare that Jesus was the Lamb of God, asked him, “Lord, where are you staying?” (John 1, 38).  Thus, the one who eats the Flesh of the Lord will abide or remain in him, and he in that one.  We will abide in him as a member of his Body, and he will abide in us as our Head.  While this signals a close connection, Jesus is speaking of personal intimacy.  The Song of Songs describes in beautiful, poetic terms the nature of this intimacy: Jesus is the Bridegroom of our souls.

“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.”  The Father is the Source of all life, human and divine.  He has begotten the Son from all eternity, and the Holy Spirit processes from both Father and Son.  The Son has life because the Father begot him.  Now, the one who “feeds on” Jesus shares in the life the Lord has received from the Father: he shares in the divine life.

“This is the bread that came down from heaven.”  While the English translation makes this phrase its own sentence, in the Greek text it is clearly   a clause.  The sentence should read: This is the bread that came down from heaven, which your ancestors ate and then died.  Or, This is the bread that came down from heaven: your ancestors ate it and died.  The Lord is setting up a contrast with his own Flesh as the Bread of Life: “Whoever eats this Bread will live forever.”  As great as a miracle as was the manna, the Lord says, the miracle of my giving you my Flesh to eat is far greater.

“These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.”  John carefully notes for us the time (near Passover) and place where the Lord spoke these words, underlining their historicity and also noting their importance.  We also see here that while Jerusalem was hostile towards Jesus and Judea generally much more favorable in their opinion, it is in Judea that the people turn away from him in large numbers: “After this, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him” (John 6, 67).