Hunting Habits

Learning how Jesus’ death gives us life

04/20/2024

Jn 6:52-59 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." These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Living on the Western frontier of Arkansas puts us in close contact with Oklahoma and several Indian Nations, like the Cherokee, Shawnee, and Muscogee. And we can learn a lot from them, especially their hunting habits. In an article I read recently about the Plains Indians, there was this fascinating observation: “Every part of the buffalo was used in some aspect of Native American life: the hide for clothing and teepee covering, the sinews for bow strings, the bones for cutting and digging implements, the bladder for water bags, the tannin in the brains to tan the hides so they would be soft and pliable.” And then the author of the article drew this profound conclusion: “For the human being to live, he had to slay his prey.”

But there is another Indian tradition that is even more extraordinary and even a little eerie. Some Native American tribes, after killing their prey, actually cut the heart out of the animal (bear or buffalo) and would eat the heart still dripping with blood. Why did they do such a gory thing? They believed that gesture would communicate to them all the admirable qualities of the animal. Human beings would receive the animal's bravery, its strength, its agility, etc.

I know that sounds gross, but we super sophisticated, scientific Americans believe virtually the same thing when we say: we are what we eat. Or to put it more colloquially: a minute on the lips and a lifetime on the hips." In other words, what we eat shapes us in profound and permanent ways. Food shapes our bodies but also shapes our spirits.

I think this Native American custom can shed some light on today’s gospel from John 6. Jesus says rather shockingly to the Jews (and to us!): “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.” Now, try to hear those words through Native American ears. We would hear: “For the human being to live, he had to slay the bear.” Similarly, our sins crucified Jesus on the cross, and therefore we are the true cause of his death. We slayed Jesus the Bear. But now his Flesh and Blood are truly present in the Eucharistic Bread and Wine.

And just like Native Americans ate the “heart” of their prey to receive its admirable qualities (speed, strength, agility), so we Catholic Christians receive Holy Communion to become more like Christ. In other words, Communion is a “minute on the lips but an eternal life-time on the hips,” meaning our bodies will rise from the dead and live forever like Jesus. Think about it: what we eat, especially here at Mass, truly shapes our bodies as well as our souls.

Boys and girls, I don’t know how many of you have gone hunting before. In some families going hunting is a rite of passage and a special time for bonding between a father and a son or a daughter. I remember as a small kid I was shooting a bee-bee gun in a field close to our house with some friends. We decided to see if we could hit a bird in a tree about fifty yards away.

They all missed but I winged the bird. He fell to the ground and I went to inspect the suffering I had inflicted. A friend came up and put his fingers around the bird’s neck and snapped off his head to stop the suffering. That was the right thing to do even though it may sound cruel. But I have never gone hunting again because I felt so bad for that unnecessary death.

But even if you don’t like to hunt like me, every time we come to Mass we adopt some of the Native American hunting habits. How so? Spiritually-speaking we witness the death of Christ due to our sins and hence, this is called the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. But it is an unbloody sacrifice because Jesus died 2,000 years ago and is now risen in glory. We don’t kill Jesus again.

Nonetheless, like the Native Americans believed: “For the human being to live, he had to slay the bear,” in our case, the Bear is Jesus. His death is our life. Further, if we want to receive all the virtues and strengths of our divine Prey – Jesus’ holiness, his courage, his tenderness – we must eat his Flesh and drink his Blood, which is what we do in Holy Communion. In other words, at every Mass we reenact the hunting habits of the American Indians.

We can learn a lot from the Native Americans who lived on this land before the European colonists arrived. They can even give us a penetrating insight about the very heart of our faith, namely, the Eucharist, the Flesh and Blood of our Savior.

Praised be Jesus Christ!