For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink

19 APRIL (Jn 6,52-59)

With divine wisdom and Holy Spirit intelligence, Jesus had shifted the axis of his speech from himself to the Father. He enclosed himself and Jews in the only true faith: the one to be granted to the Father, that gives Christ to the Jews and the Jews to Christ. That Jesus is the Father’s gift not only to the Jews, but to the whole world, it is he himself who affirms it, always in the Gospel according to John.

Amen, amen, I say to you, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony. If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God. (Jn 3,11-21).

The Jews instead bring the conversation back to the earth: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”. These pass from the faith to the non faith. For a Jew God’s omnipotence was the peculiarity of his true faith. It was a matter of a universal, comprehensive omnipotence, embracing the whole visible and invisible universe, present and future. Nothing is impossible to God. The faith of the Virgin Mary was in this truth.

For I know that the LORD is great And that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps. He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; Who makes lightnings for the rain, Who brings forth the wind from His treasuries. He smote the firstborn of Egypt, Both of man and beast. He sent signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt, Upon Pharaoh and all his servants. He smote many nations And slew mighty kings, Sihon, king of the Amorites, And Og, king of Bashan, And all the kingdoms of Canaan; And He gave their land as a heritage, A heritage to Israel His people. Your name, O LORD, is everlasting, Your remembrance, O LORD, throughout all generations. For the LORD will judge His people And will have compassion on His servants. The idols of the nations are but silver and gold, The work of man’s hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; They have eyes, but they do not see; They have ears, but they do not hear, Nor is there any breath at all in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, Yes, everyone who trusts in them. O house of Israel, bless the LORD; O house of Aaron, bless the LORD; O house of Levi, bless the LORD; You who revere the LORD, bless the LORD. Blessed be the LORD from Zion, Who dwells in Jerusalem. Praise the LORD! (Cf. Psalm 135 (134), 1-21).

Jesus does not explain the mystery. It is so great that it surpasses all human intelligence. Even for an intelligence powerfully illuminated by the Holy Spirit it remains in its infinite height. On the other hand it is right of the true faith to know that every mystery of God is his work, not the work of man. They should have said: “How can he say, do such a thing?”. If they had asked this question, they themselves would have had the answer: Nothing is impossible with God. What the Lord wills, he does it.

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.

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