Jesus’s teaching on the Eucharist was difficult to comprehend, even to the original hearers. The original Christians were called cannibals for their belief in what Jesus emphatically and repeatedly said – that he was the living bread that comes down from heaven, and the bread he was giving was his flesh for the life of the world.
Listen to August 19th’s reading from Saint John’s “Bread of Life Discourse,”
Jesus said, ‘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.”
Let’s pray – Jesus, our Redeemer. You enter into us through the Sacrament of the Eucharist, feeding us with nothing less than yourself. Let the bread and wine of the mass – your flesh and blood - be a catalyst for the ongoing transformation you continue to affect in each one of us. Amen
#eucharist #communion #breadoflife #catholic #mass #john6