GOSPEL, FIRST READING & PSALM TRANSCRIPT (Subscribe or Login for Full Transcript):
He’s just admitting what is clear from the Greek text, which is that Jesus is talking about actually eating his flesh and actually drinking his blood under the form of real food and real drink.
Now if you have any doubts about that you can look at Jesus' last words in the gospel for today. Once he has revealed this mystery of his real presence in the bread and wine, the food and drink that he's going to give, he leaves his audience with one last clue to grasping the mystery — because you have to feel a little sorry for them. How are they supposed to take all this in? How are they supposed to understand it? Especially given the fact that the law had prohibited the consumption of animal blood, how can they possibly understand what this man was saying when he says you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood? I mean, think about it, put yourself in their place, if you heard that there was a teacher or a prophet, you know, who'd risen in popularity and maybe he was from a town not far away and he came and he was speaking, if you heard him actually get up in the synagogue and say, okay, now, you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood, your natural response is going to be first, revulsion, because you’re going to assume that he's talking about cannibalism, right, eating his corpse, cannibalizing his dead body. And then second, it’s going to be, shall we say, confusion or doubt, skepticism, about the man's sanity. Because if he is actually asking you to cannibalize his corpse, he’s not in his right mind. So it's easy for you, it’s easy for us if we grown up Catholic, if we’ve grown up with the teaching of the real presence as something we’ve learned from a young age to just kind of be nonchalant or, you know, ho-hum about well oh sure it's his body and blood, of course that makes perfect sense. But if you try to put yourself back in the shoes of people hearing this message for the first time, the offense is really strong, the scandal here, the potential scandalous words is undeniable. And the fact that he heightens the scandal by using this word
trōgein, trógó, which can only be used for a realistic act of eating just takes it to the next level and really makes it hard to understand how anyone might not have just walked away from Jesus' words. And as we’ll see, that’s going to be a response some people have.
But with all that said, I think it's really crucial to point out that Jesus doesn't leave them just with the realistic affirmation, he also gives them a clue. He gives them a kind of a window or insight into how to understand the mystery that he’s just revealed to them. And that clue is the manna, this is really important. The bread of life discourse..
.
SECOND READING TRANSCRIPT (Subscribe or Login for Full Transcript):
The 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time for Year B brings us to a brief, but I think, consequential passage from St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Let's see what the reading says for today. Paul writes:
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.
It's a very brief passage, but it is significant for a couple of reasons. The first one...
For full access subscribe here >
