Whover eats this bread will live forever

Prv 9:1-6
Wisdom has built her house, she has set up her seven columns; she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine, yes, she has spread her table.

She has sent out her maidens; she calls from the heights out over the city: “Let whoever is simple turn in here; To the one who lacks understanding, she says, “Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed! Forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding.”

Eph 5:15-20
Brothers and sisters: Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise, making the most of the opportunity, because the days are evil.

Therefore, do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand what is the will of the Lord. And do not get drunk on wine, in which lies debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.

Jn 6:51-58
Jesus said to the crowds: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

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.”

We have been reflecting on the Eucharist most of the summer in our readings.

In today’s Gospel passage Jesus speaks of His own identity in the Eucharist. He speaks of the Eucharist, not only in the ordinary terms of bread and wine, but even more powerfully, He speaks of this bread and wine as being His flesh and His blood. “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you."

Flesh and blood. We use that phrase all the time – usually to refer to the whole person. And so does Jesus. He reminds us even that this Eucharist is Him – flesh and blood, the whole person. If there were any doubt remaining, He states boldly and plainly, “I am the living bread that came down from Heaven.” Jesus equates the bread from Heaven with Himself totally. This is not a part of Jesus. This truly is Jesus – flesh and blood, so to speak.

Knowing that Jesus equates the Eucharist with His total person, we can see that it is an understatement to say merely that the Eucharistic bread is the Body of Christ. It is certainly more than a “wafer.” And it is even more than the Body of Christ. It is the whole of Christ. Using the traditional expression, it is “the body and blood, soul and divinity” of our Lord Jesus Christ--His very Essence. Jesus is not only present in the Blessed Sacrament, rather in the Blessed Sacrament the fullness of Jesus is completely revealed.

It is not so much a question of presence as that of identity. Jesus reveals His full and complete identity to us in the Eucharist in the hopes that we will look into that mirror and see our identity. Who we are is never complete unless it is who we are in the sight of Jesus.

And so, we don’t just hear these readings about the Eucharist this summer and say, “Got it! Bread and wine to Body and Blood.” Rather, take a moment and see the Eucharist anew. As the Body and Blood of Jesus are elevated during the Holy Mass, look into the mirror that is the full and complete presence and identity of Jesus in the Eucharist. What is Jesus reflecting back to you? Who are you – what are you – in the sight of your Lord? What Jesus reflects to you there is the most complete, best, happiest and holiest person you can ever be – the one that you see reflected back to you when you gaze into the face of Jesus.

St. Clare, whose feast we celebrated last Tuesday, instructed her sisters to look into the face of Jesus in the Eucharist. She said, “Gaze upon Christ, consider Christ, contemplate Christ, imitate Christ.” When you gaze upon Christ, and even more powerfully, receive Christ, He will show you who you truly have been created to be. Have the courage to cast off everything else and embrace your identity in the sight of Jesus.

As we receive Holy Communion, let us be conscious that we are receiving Jesus Christ Himself – totally, fully, completely – and let us open our hearts to receive the new life that He brings to us. As we learn more about the very identity of Jesus through this Communion, let us remember that Jesus also wants to tell us something about our own identity, who He wants us to be, and as the root of the word "communion" suggests, where we fit into the "communion of Saints".