Saturday in the Third Week of Easter, May 2, 2020

John 6:52–72 

If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said to them: “Amen, amen, I say unto you: except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me: and I in him.  As the living Father has sent me and I live by the Father: so he that eats me, the same also shall live by me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that eats this bread shall live for ever.”  These things he said, teaching in the synagogue, in Capharnaum. Many therefore of his disciples, hearing it, said: This saying is hard; and who can hear it? But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at this, said to them: Does this scandalize you? If then you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life: the flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that did not believe and who he was that would betray him. And he said: Therefore did I say to you that no man can come to me, unless it be given him by my Father. After this, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Then Jesus said to the twelve: Will you also go away? And Simon Peter answered him: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have known that you are the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus answered them: Have not I chosen you twelve? And one of you is a devil. Now he meant Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon: for this same was about to betray him, whereas he was one of the twelve. 

Today we will look at the words of the Gospel we would have had yesterday (if it had not been bumped by the Solemnity of St. Joseph the Worker) in addition to the present Gospel reading.  I don’t have the lectionary before me, so I cannot use it for these readings so instead we will look at the old Douay-Rheims translation, which followed the Vulgate Latin very closely.  In fact, the original edition followed the Latin so closely in terms of the word order and even of Anglicizing Latin words that often it was unintelligible.  A word in common use today, “victim”, is one of these Anglicized words.  This word would have mystified those coming upon it five or six hundred years ago, but over time it did enter the English language through the influence of the Douay-Rheims Bible.

I have modernized the endings of the verbs and the personal pronouns in the text to make it easier to read and talk about.

“The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”  This question is right along the lines of questions Jesus was asked by Nicodemus and by the Samaritan woman.  After Jesus had spoken to Nicodemus about being born again and about the Holy Spirit, he asked, “How can these things be done?” (John 3, 9).  When the Lord asked the Samaritan woman at the well for a drink, she replied, “John How do you, being a Jew; ask of me to drink, who am a Samaritan woman?” (John 4, 9).  In both of these cases, Jesus had spoken seeming impossibilities, and both Nicodemus and the woman struggled to understand.  Both responded with faith, even while accepting that Jesus spoke of mysteries: Nicodemus, on the basis of the miracles he saw; and the woman, on the basis of Jesus revealing her life to her.  John, speaking of the reaction of the crowd to the Lord’s words about eating his flesh, tells us that they “strove among themselves” to understand his meaning.  They don’t all walk away once he begins to speak of their need to eat his flesh.

Jesus’ reply to them is urgent, repetitive, and blunt: “Amen, amen, I say unto you: except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.”  We should read over the whole of his response, which runs from verse 54 to 59, imagining him shouting over the convulsed noise of the crowd.  He speaks in short, sharply worded phrases so that everyone could hear him.  The synagogue where he was speaking must have been in an absolute uproar.  “How can this man gives us his flesh to eat?” “My flesh is meat indeed!  My blood is drink indeed!”  

John tells us of the reaction of some of the disciples: “Many therefore of his disciples, hearing it, said: This saying is hard; and who can hear it?”  The Greek word translated here as “hard” is the basis for the English “sclerosis”.  We might sympathize with the members of this crowd, considering how we ourselves would have reacted to hearing this.  At the same time, we see that the people here are asking each other, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” and, “This saying is hard; who can hear it?”  They ask each other for enlightenment; they do not ask the One who spoke.  But they will hardly learn from anyone but him.

We see the host with our eyes, but we know with faith that it is the Lord.  We see with our eyes water poured over a a baby’s head and we know with faith the Holy Spirit is cleansing the child.  Do we know these things without faith?  Do materialistic people see these things and know the truth about them?  Can they?  

The people in the crowd and even his own disciples struggle with what he tells them, but they do not ask for his help to understand.  Even when he asks them, “Does this scandalize you?”,  they only argue amongst themselves.  John does not record anyone asking him for greater clarity.  Still, the Lord offers assistance in knowing how to understand his words: “It is the spirit that gives life: the flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”  He says, You are thinking materialistically, as though I meant to give you meat right off my arm, but that is not what I mean.  You are to eat my Flesh spiritually, sacramentally, so that you are not merely nourished physically, but in your soul.  The manna was given to your ancestors to eat physically, and still they died.  My ?Flesh I give you to eat spiritually, and so you will live forever.

Jesus comments at this point on what it means when people cease to follow him, or refuse to do so in the first place: “Therefore did I say to you that no man can come to me, unless it be given him by my Father.”  That is, they reject the grace offered by God which would have enabled them to accept a mystery they could not yet understand on their own terms.  We see Peter and the other Apostles accepting this grace.  Indeed, Peter does not say, Lord, I fully understand what you are saying; he says, rather, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”  He trusts Jesus, he calls him “Lord”.  He believes that one day he will understand, even if not yet.  Peter even adds, And we have believed and have known that you are the Christ, the Son of God.”  Soon enough, Jesus will ask Peter who he thinks he is, and Peter will say, in effect, I see with my eyes a man standing before me, but I know in my heart that he is the Son of God.”  Jesus will say to him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of John: because flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16, 17).  That is, my Father has offered you grace, and you have received it.  Conversely, Judas is “a devil” because he also received the grace to believe, with the other Apostles, and betrayed the Lord despite this.

May we who have been transformed inwardly in order to believe in him with all our hearts, becoming new wine skins capable of holding the new wine of grace, become his instruments through which the Bread of Life may be conferred on those whose hands already reach out for it.