THE ONE WHO FEEDS ON ME WILL HAVE LIFE BECAUSE OF ME

At 9,1-20; Ps 116; Jn 6,52-59
20 APRIL
Jesus lives for the Father, bringing to fulfilment in his body, in his soul, in his spirit and in his heart all the words of the Father, even those that announced his unspeakable suffering and his holocaust for the atonement of sins.

He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4,16-21). When it was evening, they brought him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick, to fulfil what had been said by Isaiah the prophet: “He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases” (Mt 8,16-17).

The text of the prophecy reveals that all the faults of the world have fallen on him.

Who would believe what we have heard? To whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up like a sapling before him, like a shoot from the parched earth; There was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him, nor appearance that would attract us to him. He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, One of those from whom men hide their faces, spurned, and we held him in no esteem. Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, While we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; But the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all. Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth; Like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers, he was silent and opened not his mouth. Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away, and who would have thought any more of his destiny? When he was cut off from the land of the living, and smitten for the sin of his people, A grave was assigned him among the wicked and a burial place with evildoers, Though he had done no wrong nor spoken any falsehood. (But the Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity.) If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendants in a long life, and the will of the Lord shall be accomplished through him. Because of his affliction he shall see the light in fullness of days; Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear. Therefore I will give him his portion among the great, and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty, Because he surrendered himself to death and was counted among the wicked; And he shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses (Is 53,1-12).

There is no word either of the Psalms, or of the Law, or of the Prophets that has not received fulfilment. Here is the purpose of the Eucharist: giving life to us to every Word of Jesus contained in the Gospel. The disciple eats Christ to give life to the Word of Christ.

The Jews quarrelled 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.

Until a single Word of Jesus still remains to be fulfilled, the disciple must not give himself peace. He must always approach the Eucharist with a strong desire to give Christ the greatest glory: his Word can be lived. The disciple, strengthened by his body and his blood, attests that the whole Gospel can be transformed into life. The Christian is the one who removes all excuses to those who say that the Gospel cannot be lived.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us live for Christ.