"I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever." Over the past few weeks, Jesus has been reminding His disciples that He is the bread of life. All of this is connected to having eternal life.

 

In today’s gospel, Jesus emphasized that He is the nourishment of our souls, offering Himself and His body as the perfect and stainless nourishment for our souls, which will grant us eternal life. 

"Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them," Jesus said. The Jews misunderstood this as the literal eating of Christ's body, just as Nicodemus was confused when Jesus spoke about being born again.

The flesh and blood He was talking about are those of our Messiah and Mediator: the flesh and blood He took on in His incarnation and offered in His death and suffering. "My flesh, which I will give to be crucified and slain, is given for the life of the world," He said. 

 

In place of the life of the world, which was forfeited by sin, Christ offers His own flesh as a ransom so that ours may be spared.

In order for the life of the world to receive the general offer of eternal life, Christ, through His crucified body, grants us access to the pardon of sin, acceptance with God, the adoption as sons and daughters, access to the throne of grace, the promises of the covenant, and eternal life. These are what we refer to as the flesh and blood of Christ.

Now, Jesus offers His flesh for the life of the world as the bread on the cross, but before that, He also gave Himself to us during the Lord's Supper.

Whenever we gather at the table, we eat, remember, and believe that the body of our Lord was given, and His blood was shed for us. Brothers and sisters, once we are nourished by His word and by His body, we take God into ourselves.

Returning to the notion of abiding, abiding means participating in something with someone. The Apostle Paul tells us that when we drink the communion cup and eat from the shared loaf, we are “participating” in the body and blood of Christ.

Through this, we become one with God through Christ; we will do what God wills, as He wills it, because He wills it, and that is what it means to become one with Christ.

This explains what we see in the Gospel of John: that we live our lives in God, and God lives in us. Therefore, brothers and sisters, as Christians and as Catholics, whenever we partake of the bread on the altar, we become one with Christ; we become a living sacrifice to God.

 

If today, after this Mass, we truly remain in Christ, then our way of life will reflect it, so much so that when others see us, they see Christ as well.

The biggest temptation is to think we can live our lives apart from God. Sometimes our relationship with God is like, "Thank you, God. I witnessed the beginning of this new week. Nice doing business with You; see You next Sunday."

No, it shouldn't be like that. We should come daily to access Jesus, who has become the nourishment for our souls in the Eucharist. I pray that we may not be like one who is by the stream and is still thirsty. 

 

Brothers and sisters, may the Lord bless His words in our hearts and continually grant us the wisdom to see the unity of all Christians whenever we receive Him at the Sacred Banquet. May our reception of Him not bring condemnation, but rather be a lasting remedy and sure hopeof salvation.