Flesh and Blood

Seeing how Jesus’ flesh and blood gives us eternal life

06/12/2023

Jn 6:51-58 Jesus said to the Jewish crowds: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For 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. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

The older I get – I turn 54 this year – the more I see the similarities I share with my parents. This past week at the priests’ retreat one priest mentioned that I look a lot like my dad. My dad is a good-looking dude. Another priest remarked that I smile exactly like my mother, and she has a gorgeous smile. Many years ago Archbishop Sartain observed that I laugh just like my older brother, Paul. At first I reacted strongly denying it, like Peter in the courtyard of the high priest, “I know not the man!” I mean, what could be good about being like my older brother?

Most of us spend the first half our lives in denial of the obvious ways we are like our family of origin, those with whom we share flesh and blood. Children defiantly say: “I am not going to be like my parents when I grow up!” And then we spend the second half of our lives realizing how strikingly the same we are.

Boys marry women like their own mother. Girls marry boys like their own fathers. We raise our children like our parents raised us. Heck, I can see how I am training my dog Apollo like my parents raised me: in some ways I am strict with him, but in other ways I am sweet with him, and in some ways, he ends up in the doghouse (just like I did as a kid). Thanks, mom and dad – you taught me well!

This point about sharing the same flesh and blood can help us understand today’s gospel and today’s feast of Corpus Christi a little better. How so? Well, Jesus repeats several times in John 6 that we must eat his Flesh and drink his Blood. Now, Jesus is not talking about cannibalism. He does not want us to take a bite out of his arm. Rather, he means that he wants us to share his Flesh and Blood, like how I share my parents’ flesh and blood. How do we do that? Well, when we consume Jesus in Holy Communion, the Body and Blood of Christ, we share in his Flesh and Blood.

Now, sharing in Jesus’ Flesh and Blood has two rather remarkable consequences. First, as I said, it makes us more like him. Just like those priests at the retreat and Archbishop Sartain noticed how I am like my family with whom I share flesh and blood (my smile, my laughter, my good-looks), so the Body and Blood of Christ make me and you more like Jesus. We share in his goodness and grace.

But this transformation of a Christian into another Christ does not happen overnight or after receiving only one Holy Communion. Just like it took years for my parents to pound virtue into me and shake all the vices out of me – and this process is far from over! – so, too, each time I come up to Communion, I begin to think, feel, love, and act more like Christ, little by little.

Have you heard of that prayer called “Anima Christi”? It describes this slow spiritual change at every Communion. It goes: “Soul of Christ, sanctify me. Body of Christ, save me. Blood of Christ, inebriate me. Water from the side of Christ, wash me. Passion of Christ, strengthen me. O Good Jesus, hear me.” That eloquent prayer is a perfect summary of all Eucharistic theology, that is, by Communion we become another Christ.

The second consequence of sharing Jesus’ Flesh and Blood is the hope of living forever. How will that work? Well, Jesus said in the gospel, “Whoever eats this bread” – that is, Jesus’ Flesh – “will live forever.” But why should receiving Communion help us to live forever? Just like Jesus’ own Flesh and Blood, his physical Body, rose from the grave three days after his death, so our bodies which share in Jesus’ Flesh and Blood, will rise from the grave, too.

Now, here is the crucial point: the Flesh and Blood we receive in Holy Communion is not Jesus’ Flesh and Blood he had during his 33 years of earthly life. That would indeed be cannibalism. We do not eat Jesus’ earthly flesh and drink his earthly blood. Rather, in Communion we partake in Jesus’ resurrected, glorified, and heavenly Flesh and Blood of Jesus. Did you catch that?

It is because we share in Jesus’ heavenly Flesh and Blood that our own poor flesh and blood might rise and life forever. I smile like my mom because I share in her flesh and blood. In like manner, my body will rise from the dead – it will not stay six feet under, pushing up daisies – but will live forever because by receiving Holy Communion, I share in Jesus’ glorious, risen Flesh and Blood. And that should make us all smile as beautifully as my mother.

My friends, I know this is some deep and heady Eucharistic theology. Not sorry about that. But this is the real reason we are all Catholic: we want to live forever! And the guarantee of that eternal life is Jesus, “the first-born from the dead’ as St. Paul said in Col 1:18. Notice Paul said “first-born” suggesting there will be a second-born, and a third-born, a thousandth-born, and a millionth-born, etc.

And this is why the Church teaches we should never miss Mass. Why not? Because Holy Communion makes us more like Christ as we gradually grow in holiness. We become good like he is good. And Communion gives us hope to live forever like Christ lives forever in heaven. And all this is possible only if we share in Jesus’ Flesh and Blood.

Praised be Jesus Christ!