Married to the Source

The Bread of Life Discourse of Jesus in the Gospel of John is at the centre of our reflection today as the Roman Catholic Lectionary presents texts in celebration of the feast of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). Tom Shanahan, S.J. tells us this celebration was initiated by the Pope in the time of Thomas Aquinas. One explanation of the Eucharistic Sacrament offered by the Second Vatican Council is that it is the source and summit of Christian life. In the passage from Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the people that God fed them with unknown food in the desert as he also cites the life giving nature of the Word of God and warns us that man does not live by bread alone. In the full Chapter 10 of the Letter to the Corinthians, Paul also uses the desert experiences of the Israelites as warnings to deter us from idolatry and immorality. He points out today that the bread and wine we receive are communion with the Life of Christ in the sense of warning that to choose to focus on other gods or passions brings us into communion with evil. The words in the sixth Chapter of John which describe the flesh of Jesus and the manner in which we are to chew or gnaw this flesh point, according to Friar Jude Winkler to the prologue of the Gospel which tells us that the Word became flesh. Friar Jude reflects that the Eucharistic Sacrament is a marriage with Jesus in the sense that the two become one flesh. Tom Shanahan, S.J. and Rev. Bosco Peters of the New Zealand Anglican Community express the mission which comes from the Life of Christ, received in Eucharist as the emptying of self for others in memory of Him. Reverend Peters claims that most Christians are able to stand spiritually with Peter in the end of Chapter 6 and declare that even from our difficulties in full understanding we declare that Jesus has the words of eternal life. This Life in communion with Jesus as His Body fills us with so much vitality that Friar Jude comments even physical death will not diminish this Life. Schmoop, a web site which claims to talk student treats John Chapter 6 in a manner which is direct and leaves room for reflection which is not based on prior theological understanding.