Jesus Week – Day 5

Behold, the Lamb of God,
who takes away the sin of the world.
(John 1:29)

 

Jesus, Food

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As I said yesterday, Jesus wants to overwhelm us with His love. It wasn’t enough for Him to take on our human nature; it wasn’t enough to expend Himself in miracles and teaching; nor was it enough for Him to suffer and die on our behalf. No, Jesus wants to give even more. He wants to offer Himself over and over again by feeding us with His own flesh.

For He taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”,^[1]Matt 6:11 and then said…

The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. (John 6:51)

To understand the significance of this, we have to revisit a famous Old Testament story. It was not enough that God (as Liberator) was going to deliver Moses and the Israelites from Pharoah; it was not enough that He (as Healer) would cure them in the desert from the poisonous bite of snakes.^[2]cf. Numbers 21:9 No, God wanted to feed them Himself, and it began on Passover, which was named for the night the angel of death “passed over” Egypt. Only those who had partaken of the prescribed feast of a lamb and put its blood on the doorpost would be spared. Of this lamb, it says:

…it shall be a lamb without blemish, a male… (Exodus 12:5)

…and all the people were to consume it.

Why John the Baptist called Jesus the “Lamb of God” now becomes evident.^[3]cf. John 1:29 Jesus is the spotless new Passover Lamb, offered on behalf of our sins, to save us from the “angel of death” — because “the wages of sin is death.”^[4]Romans 6:23 And so he said to the Apostles at the Last Supper:

I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer… (Luke 22:15)

Jesus was eager to offer Himself as Divine Food that not only nourishes but saves us from powers of sin and death. So before the Last Supper, which was the first Mass, Jesus prepared them for this remarkable Gift:

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. (John 6:54)

While one could readily eat a lamb, the idea of eating someone’s flesh is repulsive to our human nature. But God foreshadowed how He would make this “bread of life” edible when in the desert He gave manna to the hungry Israelites. 

…the LORD said to Moses: I am going to rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion… (Exodus 16:4)

Yes, they were to receive their “daily bread”, but not just any bread. As the Psalmist wrote: “with bread from heaven he filled them.”^[5]Psalms 105:40

You nourished your people with food of angels and furnished them bread from heaven, ready to hand, untoiled-for, endowed with all delights and conforming to every taste. (Wisdom of Solomon 16:20)

It would be a bread palatable for everyone. It was a mere foreshadowing when God Himself would become the bread we eat. And to drive the point home to His listeners, Jesus flatly stated:

For my flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink… …the one who feeds on Me will have life because of Me. (John 6:55, 57)

Even the Apostles were astonished by this, and many of his disciples actually left Him at this point.^[6]cf. John 6:66 But it wasn’t until the Last Supper that Jesus revealed to them the manner in which He would offer himself, make himself palatable, as it were. As I like to say, in the “disguise of bread”:

[Jesus] took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of Me.” (Luke 22:19)

He likewise took the cup, which had been filled with wine, and said:

Drink from it, all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins. (Matthew 26:27-28)

For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed… he entered once for all into the sanctuary, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. (1 Cor 5:7; Heb 9:12)

Yes, the door to eternity that Adam closed, Jesus opened again for us. The daily Eucharist offered at Mass, then, is literally Jesus, who is life itself, who goes as far to say:

…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. (John 6:53)

Think about that! What more can be said? For 2000 years then, the “source and summit of the Christian life”^[7]Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1324 and our Catholic Faith has been the Body and Blood of Jesus. As St. Ignatius of Antioch (c. 110 A.D.) testified in the Early Church:

I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the Bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ… —Letter to the Romans, 7:3

And St. Ephraim (c. 306 – 373 A.D.) would say so beautifully:

Our Lord Jesus took in His hands what in the beginning was only bread; and He blessed it… He called the bread His living Body, and did Himself fill it with Himself and the Spirit… Do not now regard as bread that which I have given you; but take, eat this Bread [of life], and do not scatter the crumbs; for what I have called My Body, that it is indeed. One particle from its crumbs is able to sanctify thousands and thousands, and is sufficient to afford life to those who eat of it. Take, eat, entertaining no doubt of faith, because this is My Body, and whoever eats it in belief eats in it Fire and Spirit. But if any doubter eat of it, for him it will be only bread. And whoever eats in belief the Bread made holy in My name, if he be pure, he will be preserved in his purity; and if he be a sinner, he will be forgiven. But if anyone despise it or reject it or treat it with ignominy, it may be taken as a certainty that he treats with ignominy the Son, who called it and actually made it to be His Body. —Homilies, 4:4; 4:6

Remember what Jesus promised us before He ascended into Heaven:

Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age. (Matt 28:20)

He meant it literally. What are you waiting for, then? Go and find Jesus where He is, for He is waiting for you. Go, in the proper state,^[8]“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are ill and infirm, and a considerable number are dying. (1 Corinthians 11:26-30) and receive Him. Let Him feed, sanctify, and strengthen you, for He is Bread of Life… 

 

 

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