Octave Day of Corpus Christi
Today is the Octave of Christi Christi. Last week we considered the nature of the sacramental presence of Christ in the Eucharist, which we celebrate on this feast. Today we will focus on the readings assigned for this day.
The Gospel from St. John records that Jesus said to the multitudes of the Jews: “My flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me.” For he gave the bread that came down from heaven. Their fathers ate manna in the wilderness but still died, but he who ate this bread would live for ever.
The Feeding of the Five Thousand in the wilderness marks the climax of Jesus’ Galilean ministry. It is recorded in all four Gospels, but, as is so often the case, it is St. John’s Gospel that provides the key to understanding the deeper significance of the event, both historically and theologically. The disciples have followed one in whom the prophecies of Isaiah about the age to come in which the eyes of the blind were opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped were now being fulfilled. The Kingdom of God, the hope for a time when God’s will would finally be done on earth as it is in heaven, was now at last breaking into history in Jesus’ own person and ministry. But, although the people recognised Jesus as a miracle worker, they missed the deeper significance of his actions. When Jesus fed the multitude in the wilderness with five loaves and two fishes, they recognised a miracle like that of the giving of manna to the Israelites as they journeyed through the wilderness. They acclaimed him as the great prophet like Moses who was to come into the world and desired to make him king by force. But Jesus withdrew from the crowd, for he knew that the world could not be won by the world’s own methods.
They later found him on the other side of the lake teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum. He told them that they sought him not because they had recognised the sign that he had performed, but because they had eaten their fill of the loaves. They were not to labour for the food that perishes, but for that which endured to eternal life. They had seen him as another prophet like Moses, but, although that generation were fed by the manna in the wilderness, they still eventually died. By contrast, Jesus gave the true bread from heaven, such as a man may eat and not die. This was his own flesh, which he would give for the live of the world.
His hearers were understandably baffled by this saying. How can a man give his own flesh to eat? Jesus replied that unless they ate the flesh and drank the blood of the Son of Man they would have no life in them, but if they did they would have eternal life and be raised up on the last day. His flesh was meat indeed and his blood drink indeed. As he lived by the Father, so they would live by him.
They found this a hard saying and wondered who could accept it. Jesus responded by pointing to his future enthronement as the Son of Man. They had looked for a warrior and a conqueror like King David, but Jesus preferred to refer to himself as the Son of Man. This should not be misunderstood as a more modest title than that of the Messiah, but rather draws on the vision in the book of Daniel of the Son of Man who is the agent of God’s final deliverance of his people and is enthroned alongside the Ancient of Days. When Jesus spoke of eating his flesh and drinking his blood he was not referring to his present body, but his future risen and glorified body. The prophet Ezekiel had a vision of the restoration of the nation being like a valley of dry bones coming alive and this would be fulfilled in the person of Jesus himself in his own resurrection from the dead. He would then be able to feed his followers with the true bread from heaven, the gift of himself. The Israelites in the wilderness had eaten of the manna, but still died, but whoever ate of this bread would live for ever.
St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians recalled the tradition that he had received: “that the Lord Jesus, the same night that he was betrayed, took bread, and giving thanks, broke, and said: Take ye and eat, this is my body which shall be delivered for you; this do for the commemoration of me. In like manner also the chalice, after he had supped, saying: This chalice is the new testament in my blood; this do you, as oft as ye shall drink, for the commemoration of me. For as oft as ye shall eat this bread and drink this chalice, you shall show the death of the Lord until he come.” Whoever ate of the bread or drank of the cup unworthily would be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. A man should therefore prove himself before eating of the bread and drinking of the chalice. “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgement to himself, not discerning the Body of the Lord.”
On the same night on which he was betrayed, Jesus finally provided the key to understanding how his flesh would be meat indeed and his blood drink indeed. The prophet Jeremiah had looked forward to a new covenant, when the law would no longer be written on tablets of stone, but in the hearts of men. Jesus was now inaugurating that new order through offering the gift of himself, his own life surrendered in death, in broken bread and poured out wine. He did not give his followers a book to be read or a philosophy to be discussed but rather a meal to be celebrated in commemoration of him.
The time had come when he no longer taught, but acted and suffered. He died and then rose again. His followers could then be sustained by his risen and glorified body, when they met together in commemoration of him and shared the bread of eternal life and the cup of everlasting salvation. His sacrifice for the sins of the world was offered once for all in time and history, but it was made present to his followers every time they met to celebrate the liturgy in which he fed them with his own risen life.
Let us remain faithful in our celebrations of that same liturgy today, for we know that his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed.
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
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