Scandalous Speech

Gospel: John 6: 52-59

The words of Jesus in today's Gospel portion are shocking to people.  How can he give us his flesh to eat? Jesus doubles down on the image and it proves too much to people.  Yes, people are shocked by the literal sense of the words which appear to be cannibalistic.  However, there is much more going on in this passage and larger sweep of the Gospel than this isolated conversation about the bread of life that will emerge later in this chapter.

To partake of the body of the Lord, the bread of life, is to make a commitment to become like the Lord himself.  It is to place ourselves in communion with the Lord and the larger body of Christ.  To eat his flesh means to commit to becoming like the Lord in our way of living.  This entails a life of mercy and care for others in the works of healing, liberating, and nourishing others.  It means a life of self-sacrifice even to the point of death for the sake of others.  

At the end of the day, this is what people cannot accept.  Jesus' invitation to communion is a scandal in a world of darkness. We would rather not be merciful and loving to others.  We prefer the world as it is with all its violence and injustice - as long as those things are suffered by others and we benefit from them.  So again today we spend time discerning what partaking of the body of the Lord entails and whether we seek to be like the Lord in our way of life.   

Communion with the Lord

Gospel: John 6: 44-51

Receiving the bread of life is more than a mere physical action like an ordinary meal.  While communion takes place within the context of a simple meal, the deeper meaning of the action requires our discernment.  For to receive communion is to seek to be in communion with the Lord, to desire to imitate the Lord in our entire being.  To share the table with the Lord, to receive the Lord, the bread of life, is to be in communion with the Lord.

This communion extends to our entire life.  It is to seek to be the Lord in our entire being, to be the presence of love and mercy in the world as Jesus himself had done.  It is to put aside our life of ego, self-interest, and materialism.  We cannot receive the bread of life as merely a self-interested practice that enables us to go about our materialistic lives.  To commune with the Lord is to put on a new identity, a new person who lives for others and not for ourselves.

Communion is the pathway to a new life, to the way to eternal life that can only take place if we seek full communion with the Lord, to seek to be like the Lord in all things.  Today is a day for us to reflect on the meaning and importance of communion in our lives.  In receiving communion are we seeking this oneness with the Lord, this self-identification with the Lord in becoming more like him in all we think, in all we say, in all we do? 

Following the Lead

Gospel: John 6: 35-40

Jesus comes to do the will of God.  He will set an example of how to do God's will so that others might follow this example.  The Jewish tradition had a wealth of laws and rules attempting to legislate how God's will was to be carried out in the world, but few if any examples of how it actually looks in the world.  Rather than provide a law, Jesus sets about to offer an example, consisting of being the mercy and loving kindness of God in the world.

To believe in Jesus, then, is not a matter of intellectual assent to certain propositions about Jesus, nor is it the mere recitation of a creed written long after Jesus' time on earth.  To believe in Jesus is, rather, about an entire way of living as Jesus did.  It is about doing God's will as Jesus demonstrated, in being the mercy and love of God in the world.  It is the submission of one's entire being and person to a way of living in the world.  

Bread is necessary for life in a physical sense.  Jesus is our bread of life in a spiritual sense, in being the ongoing example and inspiration for us to live in the world, in doing the will of God, in being bread for others ourselves.  To partake of this bread is to commit oneself to being like the Lord in our way of life. To accept and receive communion is our act of faith, our credal statement expressed not in words but in deed, to express hope that all our deeds follow the way of Jesus.