From the Friars: The Bread of Life
Today in the Gospel Jesus says the most controversial words ever uttered in human history, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you” (Jn. 6:5). For centuries Christian have debated what these words truly mean, a complete scandal for our Jewish brothers and sisters. How can Jesus really give us His flesh to eat? Do these words have an actual concrete expression that reveals something far greater than a symbol?
The Eucharist is the Sacrament that Christ institutes on Holy Thursday and which He consummates the following day on the Cross, “Consumatum est” (It is finished!) (Jn. 19:30). Every time we faithfully attend Mass and receive Holy Communion we become living members of Christ’s Body, for He is our life. We become “one flesh” with Christ, thus perfectly fulfilling Gen. 2:24, “Man shall leave father and mother and be joined to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh”. Christ is the Bridegroom, and we are the Bride.
The Sacrament of Marriage is another concrete expression of Jesus’ words today in the Gospel. Unless a marriage is consummated (“one-flesh union”) there is no life within that union. Jesus actually speaks about this when He said there are some who do not get marriage because they are born ‘eunuchs’ (My. 19:12). The word ‘eunuch’ here does not means ‘unable to have children’ but ‘unable to have intercourse’. This is what the Church calls impotence. It is an impediment to marriage and must be definitive and perpetual. Without the possibility of consummating the marriage there can be no marriage, because this Sacrament requires something more than just mere words.
“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you.” Jesus Christ means these words very literally and He proved them to us on the Cross. After the words of Consecration at Mass, we faithfully fulfill these words by receiving Jesus’ true Body and Blood in Holy Communion. And married couples, in the totality of the Sacrament they share, also participate is Christ’s redeeming act by fidelity to their wedding vows which are renewed in the marriage act.
— Fr. Francis