As I prepared this
homily, I began to realize that the complaints and quarreling of the crowd
against Jesus’ words were closer to home than I first thought. That includes my
own thoughts when I really focused on these words. “How can this man give us
his flesh to eat?” This is a perennial question that the Church must address,
and it takes all the wisdom and patience a mother can show to once again
explain this great mystery. So let us sit at the feet of Jesus and our Mother
the Church to listen again to how it is that Jesus can give us his flesh to
eat.
First of all, we must remember Jesus’ words to Philip,
“Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip.” Jesus is
not alone. His Father is always with him, and he does only what the Father
tells him to do. This is the first point. The crowd had been following Jesus
for a long time and had seen many, many signs and wonders. We, too, have been
following Jesus for a long time and seen our own share of signs and wonders.
But how quickly our minds can forget. How easily we slip back to concerns about
food and drink and what we are to wear and forget that our heavenly Father
feeds us. If Jesus can feed five thousand plus men and women with five barley
loaves—because on him the Father has set his seal—maybe we should not dismiss out
of hand even his most radical claims.
But even having experienced the miracle of the loaves and
fishes, it seems the crowd always need more convincing. Like a child who needs
repeated corrections and explanations, who tests the limits and pushes the
envelope, the crowd calls up other examples from their experience. What about
Moses who gave them bread from heaven? They knew Moses, but they did not know
where Jesus had come from. Jesus had come down from heaven. In his person Jesus
contained heaven. His whole being was filled with heaven. The Father did not
stop with the manna to bring his loving care down to earth. He kneaded it into
his Son who came not to do his own will but the will of his Father, and above
all, to feed his people with bread that would last to eternal life.
But just as the manna became wormy and stank if the
people tried to create a little stash; or melted in the heat of the sun, because
they did not trust Moses’ word, so the crowd had to learn to trust Jesus’ words.
The bread he would give was his very flesh. What more could he give them? How
else could he show them his Father’s care?
We could go on and on. The mystery of the Most Holy
Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ is an unfathomable mystery. One feels
like a little child trying to stammer out some words to express his thoughts.
Let us turn to our Mother the Church and to Our Lady, the mother of Jesus, who
gave him his flesh and blood, and through whom the Father gives us the living
bread. They teach us that the words of Jesus spoken today are spirit and life.
Let us pray to the Spirit of the Father and the Son to open our eyes to the
deifying light of this mystery.
This morning's homily by Abbot Vincent.
