April 15, 2005
Eat this Bread Jn 6:52-59
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood
has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever." These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
It is a difficult teaching to comprehend. What does it mean to eat the flesh of Jesus? To me it is living by the Word of God being feed by it daily. In the Scriptures there are so many ways to live and the wisdom grows and takes on new life and brings truths to light in different ways with each reading or hearing of the Word and then digesting the Word.
In lectio, of sacred writing the meaning becomes chewed on, savored, aftertastes and after thoughts follow and remembrance and experience and life enters the Word the sacred readings are more than a reading experience but the bread of life that always sustain. The holy is touched and in moments of grace lived.
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood
has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever." These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
It is a difficult teaching to comprehend. What does it mean to eat the flesh of Jesus? To me it is living by the Word of God being feed by it daily. In the Scriptures there are so many ways to live and the wisdom grows and takes on new life and brings truths to light in different ways with each reading or hearing of the Word and then digesting the Word.
In lectio, of sacred writing the meaning becomes chewed on, savored, aftertastes and after thoughts follow and remembrance and experience and life enters the Word the sacred readings are more than a reading experience but the bread of life that always sustain. The holy is touched and in moments of grace lived.
posted by Joan Morris at 5:45 AM
