How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?

19 AUGUST (Jn 6,51-58)

The Book of Wisdom reads the events of the Exodus and the desert and gives them a very high sense of truth in the Holy Spirit. Nothing is humanly rational in those events. On the contrary, everything is from the omnipotence of God that is infinitely beyond our small minds. Even the manna that fell in the desert is beyond any human logic. How is it that the same food always adapts to the taste of whoever eats it? The mind must stop. Human intelligence halt. There is only room for faith.

Therefore they were fittingly punished by similar creatures, and were tormented by a swarm of insects. Instead of this punishment, you benefited your people with a novel dish, the delight they craved, by providing quail for their food; That those others, when they desired food, since the creatures sent to plague them were so loathsome, should be turned from even the craving of necessities, While these, after a brief period of privation, partook of a novel dish. For upon those oppressors, inexorable want had to come; but these needed only be shown how their enemies were being tormented. For when the dire venom of beasts came upon them and they were dying from the bite of crooked serpents, your anger endured not to the end. But as a warning, for a short time they were terrorized, though they had a sign of salvation, to remind them of the precept of your law. For he who turned toward it was saved, not by what he saw, but by you, the savior of all. And by this also you convinced our foes that you are he who delivers from all evil. For the bites of locusts and of flies slew them, and no remedy was found to save their lives because they deserved to be punished by such means; But not even the fangs of poisonous reptiles overcame your sons, for your mercy brought the antidote to heal them. For as a reminder of your injunctions, they were stung, and swiftly they were saved, Lest they should fall into deep forgetfulness and become unresponsive to your beneficence. For indeed, neither herb nor application cured them, but your all-healing word, O Lord! For you have dominion over life and death; you lead down to the gates of the nether world, and lead back. Man, however, slays in his malice, but when the spirit has come away, it does not return, nor can he bring back the soul once it is confined. But your hand none can escape. For the wicked who refused to know you were punished by the might of your arm, Pursued by unwonted rains and hailstorms and unremitting downpours, and consumed by fire. For against all expectation, in water which quenches anything, the fire grew more active; For the universe fights on behalf of the just. For now the flame was tempered so that the beasts might not be burnt up that were sent upon the wicked, but that these might see and know they were struck by the judgment of God; And again, even in the water, fire blazed beyond its strength so as to consume the produce of the wicked land. Instead of this, you nourished your people with food of angels and furnished them bread from heaven, ready to hand, untoiled-for, endowed with all delights and conforming to every taste. For this substance of yours revealed your sweetness toward your children, and serving the desire of him who received it, was blended to whatever flavor each one wished. (Wis 16,1-21).

Jesus arrives. He announces the great mystery of his flesh and his blood. What does man pretend? Comprehending with his mind the great mystery of the Eucharist.

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.” 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.”

Jesus does not explain the mystery. It is not explainable. It is a mystery. It is the mystery of the faith. It can only be lived, welcoming it with a pure, obedient, chaste, and free heart. After two thousand years of explanations, definitions, dogmas, infinite theologies; we, too, must bow down and prostrate, worship. The mind must set aside. We trust Jesus. We believe in his truth. We welcome the reality of the Eucharistic mystery in our heart.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels, and Saints give us the true faith in the mystery.