Living Beyond Survival

Michiel Peeters - We are still in Capernaum. The previous day, thousands had been fed by the Lord, and so they had gone after him. Then he had begun to teach them. He said that man does not live by bread alone: see if you do not need a different food from the bread that satiated you yesterday! I am that other bread, the true bread from heaven that you need, that can give life to you and to the entire world! 

His listeners had become a little irritated: “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” But Jesus insists: “I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; [what you can experience with me] is the bread that [truly] comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” 

Then, some in the crowd, some who had never really been touched by Jesus, who, on the contrary, had seen with sorrow that this rabbi attracted so many people, got their “quote.” Now they can “prove” that he is foolish, that the people must therefore return again “to the order of the day,” to the familiar, ordinary scheme, in which they can no doubt play a commanding role: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” He must be a fool. This is not possible. Let’s go away. 

But the Lord, instead of calming tempers, instead of preserving at all costs the “unity” of his huge crowd of followers—by means of a convoluted “on the one hand, on the other hand,” or an ingenious synthesis of the various points of view, of the various interpretations of his words—actually raises the bar. He gets—as a human being—the most fantastic idea of his life: to his disciples, to those who are so touched by him that they want much more of him, that they want him, he will literally give his body and blood to eat, as an effective sign of his being food for the life of the world. He begins to speak about what we call the Eucharist: 

“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…. 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.” Unambiguous and breaking every scheme. 

As always, we are called to verify what the Lord says: “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.” Is it true that when I receive, with a hunger for “true food,” for bread to live (as opposed to barely surviving), that piece of bread we call the Eucharist, is it true that over time I live more, I perceive in myself a new life, that grows over time? 

Living, as opposed to surviving? Is it true that his flesh, his human existence among us, with all it implies, is real food, food we really need to live? Is it true that by going after him, including welcoming and accepting this strange sign, I become more alive? 

If we verify this in our present experience, we can also become certain of the future, of what Jesus says about the future: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day…. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
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