REFLECTION

Gospel

I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world. 

The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, has an everlasting life: and I will raise him up on the last day.                     

For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. He that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eats me, the same also shall live by me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eats this bread, shall live forever.                                                                                                 John 6: 51-58   

Reflection

If this text is at one level a meditation on the Eucharist, then part of the point is that the Eucharist is life-giving because it is Jesus who gives it, and it is life-giving because it is Jesus himself who is given. The Eucharist is life-giving because it draws us deeper into relationship with Jesus, so that we may “abide” there (verse 56). There can be no proper understanding of the Eucharist apart from this life-giving participation in the life and the death of Jesus himself.

The mind may have questions about what Jesus says but the prayer draws us to listen to Him, heart to heart. He leads us to appreciate the closeness to which he calls to us all. ‘Eat’, ‘live’ and ‘abide’ are all words that belong to the home. Jesus invites us to bring anything in our life that is unsettled or out of place, that it may find its home in Him.

Julie Leonard Religious Education Leader/Wellbeing Leader