"Walking Dead or Fully Alive?": A Reflection on the Gospel for August 19th, 2018: Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

John 6:51-58 

Jesus said to the crowd:
‘I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.
Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever;
and the bread that I shall give is my flesh,
for the life of the world.’
Then the Jews started arguing with one another: ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ they said. Jesus replied:
‘I tell you most solemnly,
if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you will not have life in you.
Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood
has eternal life,
and I shall raise him up on the last day.
For my flesh is real food
and my blood is real drink.
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
lives in me
and I live in him.
As I, who am sent by the living Father,
myself draw life from the Father,
so whoever eats me will draw life from me.
This is the bread come down from heaven;
not like the bread our ancestors ate:
they are dead,
but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.’

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Before my conversion, when this Gospel was read (and most others, to be fair), I would hear the words but tune out the meaning. I was a consumer of trivia at Church. If, before I gave my heart to Jesus, I truly understood what the Eucharist was, I doubt I could have consumed it without gagging a little. When I was studying Church history later on, I wasn’t entirely surprised that early Christians were accused of cannibalism because of their public statements to this effect. Persecutors of the early Church drummed up images of Christians that make the Walking Dead look tame.

How did my perspective change when I became a Christian (rather than just a pew filler)? I saw this passage and recognized the absolute necessity for the Eucharist. Jesus is telling us that we have to consume His flesh and drink His blood. He is telling us if we don’t, we won’t have Life within us. He spoke so clearly and leaves no room for misunderstanding. He wants us, he wants me, to consume Him.

The more we take Christ into us, the more He strengthens us and transfigures us into something more like Him. He makes Himself so little that He can get into my very DNA, making me something new, something better than I was before, something like Him. As a human, I am prone to weakness, selfishness, and even death. When I read Darwin in University, one thing that became clear to me, was that humanity after the Fall was terribly broken. Life without Christ is not designed for glory. Human life is, as Hobbes described, poor, nasty, brutish and short. It is fragile and designed for self-preservation.

But in this Gospel, Jesus is telling us we were made for Life—not just broken human life, but God-given Eternal Life. With the trust that Christ will continue to transform me through the Eucharist, I will continue to run to the altar to seek Him who loved me first. I have tasted and I have seen and oh how good is our God.

Let us pray: Dear Jesus, thank you for offering yourself for us whenever we come to the altar to seek you. Thank you for humbling yourself not once, but for all believers to partake. Give us clean hands to receive you and mouths ready to speak your truth. AMEN. ​

Stephanie Potter

"The more we take Christ into us, the more He strengthens us and transfigures us into something more like Him." - Stephanie Potter (Ora Reflections)