20th Sunday Year B - Homily 5

Homily 5 - 2018

Over the past three weeks Jesus has said of himself that he is the bread of life, the bread of God, living bread, true bread, bread from heaven. He has claimed that he gives life, eternal life, life for the world, and will raise us up on the last day. He insisted he would give this life to those who believed in him, that he would satisfy the hunger and thirst of all who would eat him as the bread of life, who would eat his flesh, who would drink his blood. He spoke of his flesh and blood as handed over for the life of the world, poured out for the life of the world.

What was he seeking to convey to us by all these challenging figures of speech? What is he telling us? He assumes that we can all be more alive, more fully alive, than we presently are. But what is life? What is eternal life? Would you say you are becoming more alive? more fully alive? And if you would, what do you mean? Is your experience of life changing? Is it improving? Is it becoming more [or less] satisfying? Do you yearn for more – to have more? or to be more?

Does Jesus help us with our answers? He says he gives us his blood. What does he mean? Have you ever given blood? What for? Have you ever had a blood transfusion? What did it do? It seems to have some connection with vitality. Is that what he is talking about? But what sort of vitality? He says he gives us his flesh to eat. We become what we eat. Is that his meaning? He talked about bread of life. He said he offered his flesh for the life of the world, out of love for the world, for people. Is he offering us vitality like his? the capacity to love like he does? to devote our life for the sake of the world?

If it is basically life that he is talking about, then he says that he makes it possible for us to live like that. But he does not live for us. We need to do the living ourselves. He provides the capacity; we make it real. But all this is conditional. For us to live like him, we need to believe in him. We need to trust his way, to live as he shows us through his own living and his teaching. He is not talking about believing things about him. It is much more involving than that. He is talking about relating to him, relating with him, entrusting ourselves to him. To live like he did involves essentially loving like he did.

It is fascinating to look at his language, at how it becomes increasingly vivid as the discussion progresses. He talks about flesh, blood, eating flesh, drinking blood. In fact, his word for eating changes as his talk goes on and means more literally devour. That supposes real intensity, that we want to live like him, with him, in love with him; that we really want to be absorbed in him, assimilated to him, enlivened by him.

Simply to receive Communion seems too weak a way to talk about what it is all about. The symbols, eating flesh, drinking blood, are too stark to think that their vitality and their effect can be measured, for example, simply by the number of times we piously receive Communion. They cry out that we take the symbols seriously. We need to want to devour him, to be radically transformed by him. And that depends totally on our deliberate, desired, conscious, active cooperation with him, and on our determination to live like him, to live in him, and to allow him to live in us – the real him, the nitty-gritty him, the flesh and blood Jesus who was prepared even to be crucified, rather than to back down on loving and forgiving this too often dreadful world – me, you, us, them, everyone!