Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
John R. DonahueAugust 12, 2000

The symphony of the bread of life discourse reaches a crescendo with startling hopes and startling claims. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day (v. 19). Though we tend to identify eternal life as the promised reward following death, in John it begins in this life as a gift from Jesus. Earlier Jesus says: Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life (5:24). Eternal life in John is a present possession that reaches its fulfillment in total abiding with God; it is the life of faith, a kind and quality of life that those who follow Jesus lead, but a kind that will not be destroyed by death. People of faith participate in this life while alive. It is the life that is sustained by eating Jesus’ flesh and blood.

The utter realism of eating flesh and drinking blood was shocking to Jesus’ hearers, as it would be today if taken literally. (Imagine the shocked reaction if a chalice of blood was placed on a table next to a chalice of consecrated wine, simply to bring home the transformation.) Talk of flesh and blood is meant to shock and to bring home the realism of the full humanity of Jesus. John clearly understands these terms symbolically or sacramentally. The Johannine Jesus is truly a heavenly figure, come from above, returning to the Father possessing present supernatural knowledge, tripping lightly on earth, as commentators have noted. John became with some justification a favorite of later Gnostics, who denied the full humanity of Jesus. Here the shocking language and startled reaction of the audience serve as a challenge to believers to affirm the seemingly impossible. In receiving the Eucharist, our full humanity is joined with the full but transformed humanity of Jesus, and this constitutes life in its fullness that will never be taken away. Andre Dubus described this eloquently in Meditations From a Movable Chair: When the priest places the Host in the palm of my hand, I put in my mouth and taste and chew and swallow the intimacy of God.

The latest from america

April 6, 2025, the Fifth Sunday of Lent: What new symbols do we need today? Sometimes new ideas require fresh images, especially when one tries to discern the signs and places where God was present.
Victor Cancino, S.J.April 02, 2025
March 30, 2025, the Fourth Sunday of Lent: Jesus’ parable in Luke’s Gospel masterfully illustrates three characters, the father and two sons, each of whom provides an insight on the human condition.
Victor Cancino, S.J.March 26, 2025
March 23, 2025, the Third Sunday of Lent: On this third Sunday of Lent, we are invited to become aware of God’s presence through living things like bushes and fig trees as well as in the contradictions that reveal divine mystery.
Victor Cancino, S.J.March 19, 2025
March 16, 2025, the Second Sunday of Lent: For the second Sunday of Lent, the readings remind us that God has renewed the covenant repeatedly throughout history.
Victor Cancino, S.J.March 11, 2025