Bread of eternal life

August 16, 2015
20th Sunday
in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Pro 9:1-6
2nd Reading: Eph 5:15-20
Gospel: Jn 6:51-58

Jesus said to the crowds, “I am the living bread which has come from heaven; whoever eats of this bread will live forever. The bread I shall give is my flesh and I will give it for the life of the world.”
The Jews were arguing among themselves, “How can this man give us flesh to eat?” So Jesus replied, “Truly, I say to you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood live with eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.

My flesh is really food and my blood is drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood, live in me and I in them. Just as the Father, who is life, sent me and I have life from the Father, so whoever eats me will have life from me. This is the bread which came from heaven; unlike that of your ancestors, who ate and later died. Those who eat this bread will live forever.”

D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)

Today’s Gospel is a continuation of the Body and Blood discourse. Jesus insisted, over the objection of his listeners, that unless people eat his body and drink his blood they will not have life in them. The resistance of the Jews to this teaching was largely due to the human repugnance at eating and drinking human flesh and blood. But did Jesus mean it literally that they should behave like cannibals?

Surprisingly, the Greek version of today’s Gospel text does not use the equivalent word for eating but for munching or gnawing. These are words used not to describe an act of human beings but of animals. Bible Scholars believe this is the Evangelist’s way of emphasizing that Jesus meant it literally when he challenged people to eat his body and drink his blood.

If he did not mean it literally, he could have revised what he had said when people started walking out as he was talking. Then Peter came into the scene. He said, “Lord to whom shall we go, you have the words of everlasting life.” This is the faith we have inherited. Let’s keep it alive by asking God for the light of wisdom.

An anonymous author wrote: “he who truly loves refuses to die”. This finds perfect application in Jesus who, as lover of humankind found a way to be with us forever in flesh and blood. By instituting the Eucharist Jesus found a way to be in us since by taking his body in communion he becomes part of us. Most marvelous of all is that in the Eucharist we are not fed just like stray animals but like children fed in love and with love. — Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.

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