20th Ordinary

August 20, 2000

by Paul Rooney

John 6:51-58

--------------
Theme: to challenge us to appraise and reaffirm our Catholic belief in the Real Presence in the Eucharist.

--------------

I'm told that there are more radio stations in this country devoted to Western music than any other kind. I find two things notable about Western music.

• First, you don't need an Interpreter. The words mean what they say.
• Secondly, Western music usually tells a story - and who can resist a story?

Usually those songs mirror back to us a slice of the nation's soul, reflecting our fears and pains, our relationship problems, and our sorrows and joys. Listen to these titles:

• "How Come Your Dog Don't Bite Nobody but Me?"
• "Who's Gonna Take the Garbage Out When I'm Gone?"

Now here's one that will jerk at your heartstrings:

• "My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink, and I Don't Love Jesus" [now that guy has a problem!]
• "I'd Rather have a Bottle in Front of me than a Frontal Lobotomy"

I don't think we ever need an Interpreter to understand Western music!

But there are other times when we do need an Interpreter. For example, our Kids hear words they don't fully understand. Just within the last two weeks I've heard children asking for the meaning of "ambidextrous," "plague," and "bounty." Those are not words used in your normal conversation (even that word "bounty" that we use in grace before meals is not used otherwise in normal conversation).

Well, what about adults? Sometimes they need an Interpreter, too.

• Jesus' listeners certainly could have used one, in today's gospel setting!
• The people heard Jesus say, "He who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has life eternal" - now that was a hard saying, something they could not understand; they needed an interpreter.

In the "Didja Know?" section of our parish bulletin today, we talk about how those words of Jesus must have sounded "scandalous" at first. They sounded almost like cannibalism! And after all, a good orthodox Jew would never eat anything with blood in it, let alone "drink" blood!

But we also know, since we've wrestled with St. John's gospel before, that any time Jesus is in dialogue with someone, he is talking to them on a deeper level.

From our perspective in the year 2000, the way in which Jesus' followers eat his flesh and drink his blood is through consuming the Eucharist, which is truly his flesh and blood and is truly his Real Presence. We believe that bread and wine truly become Jesus' body and blood at the Mass, and they remain his body and blood even after the sacramental celebration is over.

Well, the sad news is that there are a good number of people who call themselves Catholic who have never really given this much thought. A couple of generations of these "cradle Catholics" were "born into" their religion. And they became a little lax in their religious education, and now have a faulty understanding of this important doctrine of the Real Presence in the Eucharist.

Now let's go back to the people in St. John's community (perhaps two generations of "cradle Jewish Christians" after Jesus' Resurrection). They, too, had become a little lax. They also had to cope with the Gnostics and other heresies that appeared now and then, which would deny the full humanity of Jesus.

So the shocking language used by Jesus, and the startled reaction of the people who heard him, would also serve as a challenge to John's community to affirm the seemingly impossible:

• First, Jesus was indeed both fully human and fully divine.
• Second, in receiving the Eucharist, our full humanity is joined with the full but transformed humanity of Jesus, and this constitutes life in its fullness that will never be taken away (1).

Jesus' words are a challenge to each one of us here today. How would you answer these three questions:

• 1- Do you really believe, as the Church interprets and teaches us, that Jesus is truly and really present in the Eucharist?
• 2- Do you believe, as the Church interprets and teaches us, that the bread and wine no longer exist except to our senses, but the reality is that this Eucharist is the transformed body and blood of Christ?
• 3- Do you believe, as the Church interprets and teaches us, that when you receive Holy Communion, you are sacramentally consuming the flesh and blood of Christ?

If you have trouble saying "yes" to all three of those questions, then I encourage you to hasten to join our Sunday religious education series (RCIA), to update and deepen your faith!

There is one final aspect to being joined to Christ when you receive the Eucharist. To be nourished by Jesus means to become one with him, and therefore to become a servant for others - remembering that he never sent anyone away hungry. It is now Our turn to become a sacrifice for others. It is now Our turn to become food and drink for others. It is now Our turn to be forgiving; to take notice of the needs of others; to welcome and lead others into full union.

It is time to Interpret your own internal beliefs. Do you see Eucharist as just a "symbol" of Jesus, or do you see Eucharist as the "Real Presence" of Jesus? Remember Jesus' words today, because they are words that are really Good News: "He who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has life eternal, and I will raise him up on the last day." (+)

Notes:

(1) John Donahue, S.J. in "The Word," America, August 12-19, 2000.

(Comments to Deacon Paul at prooney@uswest.net.)
Mary Our Queen Parish, Omaha

(Permission is granted to use any of this material for non-profit purposes.)