Some years ago there was a Scottish regiment stationed in Edinburgh Castle.
Some of the regiment’s officers were devout men.
And every evening they’d gather together and drink a toast.
The toast went like this: "A clean sword and a dirty Bible."
The clean sword referred to their hope that they wouldn’t have to use their swords in battle.
The dirty Bible referred to a Bible that had been smudged and tattered from constant use.
“Eat Clean and Train Dirty” is a similar turn of phrase: The eating clean is to eat things like Kale and Grapefruit salad with Tofu Croutons, and training dirty means workout like a total and utter beast, like dropping weights to the ground at the gym when you just can’t do another rep.
When we consider our Gospel text today from John 6:51-58, the phrase I thought of was: “Heavenly bread, hellish misunderstanding.”
1.Heavenly Bread--
Jesus kept the food and drink value in the Eucharist as appearances so that the appearance of bread and wine--their size, weight, shape, color, taste, and smell--are preserved miraculously by God. The Eucharist is a sacrament.
The Baltimore Catechism defines a sacrament as "an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace."
The Eucharist which “is” the New Covenant requires a validly ordained priest or there is no Mass and no Eucharist. Christ did not tell people to write a biography about his life: He said “do this” not “write this.” He founded a church which discerned which books belong in the bible. And he ordained his Apostles priests when he said, “Do this in memory of me” regarding the Eucharist.
After consecration, the bread and wine are totally changed into Jesus’ body and blood. He says that my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him (John 6:55).
That is why we genuflect in Church. Because Jesus is there in a tangible form. That is why examine ourselves before we receive Holy Communion (1 Corinthians 11:28) and go to confession before we receive the Eucharist if we commit a serious sin, which includes deliberately skipping Mass on Sunday.
Recall that the Third Commandment is to keep the Sabbath holy. The Catechism 2181 says that unless, for serious reasons (such as illness, the care of infants, or dispensed by their pastor) those who deliberately skip this Sunday Mass obligation, commit a grave sin.
2. Hellish Misunderstanding-
Jesus shifts his vocabulary in our Gospel text today in John 6: 53 from the polite form of eating to the impolite form, which is “trogan”—in Greek it means to munch, gnaw or chew. This doubling down in his word choice in face of unbelief makes it crystal clear that Jesus literally means exactly what he is teaching---that in very real, literal terms, we are eating his body and drinking his blood.
Many disciples, not strangers, but those who already believed in him--responded, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” and many of them left. They were probably disgusted, thinking that Jesus was speaking like a cannibal, and that is a hellish misunderstanding that persists to this day.
Despite such a misunderstanding, John 6:53 applies, "Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”
The best they could do now was to try and satisfy their proxy needs or associations-- “I need this, I want this.” Our proxy judgments are often tainted by our own interests, so that we are covertly requesting that God treat us the way that we want rather than what he wants, e.g. “I’ll just stick to my Bible-only, thank you, I don’t want the Eucharist.”
Jesus then turned to his closest followers, the apostles, and asked if they would leave. Peter spoke up and gave the fundamental principle of Eucharistic faith: “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68)
Unfortunately, polls show that even among (mostly non-practicing) Catholics there is a hellish misunderstanding since they do not believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Perhaps some would rather think about Christ with a tidy-neat-belief, rather than to believe in the Real Presence and his words that unless we eat his flesh and drink his blood we have no life in us.
E.g. A former Protestant said that she grew up in a church with a sterile communion ritual: Jesus’ flesh was never mentioned. There were neatly cubed pieces of white bread and plastic thimblefuls of grape juice, but we did not talk about Jesus’ blood.
People are made for the eternal (Ecclesiastes 3:11) and therefore cannot be ultimately satisfied by this life. But in the daily Eucharist can still satisfy the heart hunger in this life, like daily Manna.
After receiving Holy Communion and returning to your pew, it is not a time to believe in God in a commonplace sort of way, but now to actually experience it.
Allow for the full experience so that Jesus body gets integrated into your body and soul. Be aware of it, although you don’t have to feel anything in particular when you receive Holy Communion, in fact, most people have more feeling after confession than after receiving Holy Communion. The Catholic faith has room for feelings, and how to get along without them when they are lacking. After I receive Holy Communion, I really just feel a sense of peace from eating this heavenly bread.
Amen.
