Consuming
Jesus’ Body and Blood is indeed an unmanageable truth. And as we hear in
today’s Gospel, those disciples who take him literally are scandalized. Still,
it is true. We do in fact and in faith consume the Body and Blood, Soul and
Divinity of Christ Jesus in the Eucharist
It
was not that long ago, that Jesus fed that crowd with an abundance of bread. And as Jesus
fed all those people on the hillside, we like to imagine that he understood for
the first time that it would never be enough for him, merely to feed those he
loved even with such abundance. Perhaps it was after that very busy afternoon
of blessing and doling out all that bread that Jesus dreamt of himself becoming
Bread for us, realized that he himself was meant to be our Food, for he knows
he is indispensable for us.
Jesus
becomes bread so that he can be dissolved in us, surrender himself to us
completely. It's what he did on the cross; it's what he does in the Eucharist
each day. That’s what love does; it gives itself away. And so once again we
come to him, to whom else shall we go. Each morning we are invited to
give ourselves, as he gives himself and to get caught up in the
self-forgetfulness that God is.