20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (“B”)
August 16, 2009

Q. 541: Why does St. John’s gospel have so many sayings by Jesus that begin, “Amen, Amen, I say to you…”?

A. 541:
Your observation is correct; John’s gospel quotes Jesus using this double Amen more than two dozen times. It has the purpose and effect of taking the discussion to a much higher and extremely serious level. The ultimate message today is that having Jesus living within you (through a Sacramental life) is his chosen way to bring you to eternal life.

As I tell my Catholic bible school students, this segment from John assumes that you are already familiar with the story in the Old Testament of the Hebrews in the desert being fed manna from heaven. So when Jesus says in today’s gospel (John 6: 51-58) that he himself is “the living bread that came down from heaven,” he is drawing not only a parallel to the old miracle, but radically changing the significance of both the past event and the present reality.

St. John does not have an institution of the Eucharist story in his gospel, but he is clearly indicating to his community the existence of the Sacrament. Furthermore, he is saying that participation in this precious Sacrament constitutes the fullness of living out our faith, and the fullness of accepting the words of Jesus Christ that he is the living bread. Those words of Jesus have called Christian and Jew to make a radical choice ever since the resurrection. One’s free response to those words, sadly, continues to separate Christians into those who accept Jesus and his pointed revelatory words, and those who prefer to manipulate them to mean something other that what Jesus was really proclaiming.

That moment of truth – the moment when Jesus identifies bread and wine consecrated by a valid priesthood as his own body and blood – that moment is placed before us by Jesus as a challenge and a call to respond in faith. It is a very strong invitation! When Jesus says, “Amen, Amen, I say to you…”, we had better listen and respond!

KNOW YOUR CATECHISM! The principal fruit of receiving the Eucharist in Holy Communion is an intimate union with Christ Jesus (CCC #1391). The Church believes in the life-giving presence of Christ in an altogether special way through the Eucharist, the bread that gives eternal life (CCC #1309).

Deacon Paul Rooney
Mary Our Queen Parish, Omaha

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