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April 10, 2008
Acts 9:1-20 / Jn 6:52-59
In virtually all cultures, there are few ideas more repugnant and few taboos more inviolable than those regarding cannibalism. Most people would rather die than eat the flesh of a fellow human being. Hence, we can understand the consternation that Jesus’ followers felt when he told them that unless they ate his flesh and drank his blood they would have no life in them. What a jolt that must have been! He hadn’t given them the class on the eucharist yet.
There’s a saying in our culture that gives a good insight as to where Jesus was leading them. It says, "You are what you eat." In a spiritual sense, that’s exactly what Jesus wants for us, to become a part of him and to replicate in each part of our life and character his goodness. Our bonding with him, especially by sharing the eucharist, will give us the strength and energy to grow into his goodness. That strength and energy is what we call "grace."
What a remarkable destiny we have: To become brothers and sisters to the Lord Jesus, in the truest and fullest sense. How loved we are! Let us give thanks and love in return.
One of the ways I like to explain that the Eucharist is not cannibalism to my students is by relating to them the way that a fetus lives off it's mother or that a baby nurses. The Eucharist is made to be given in the same way so we must not think in terms body parts like an arm or a leg. In the same way that a fetus or baby feeds without diminishing the mother, we feed the same way off of Christ and He will never be lessened and we will continue to grow spiritually if we keep ourselves in grace and try to receive Him frequently as possible .
God bless,
Larry Johnson