While not eat­ing the flesh of the Son of Man, and not drink­ing his blood implies not hav­ing (etern­al) life, on the oth­er hand, who­ever eats the flesh and drinks the blood of the Son of Man, will be endowed with the following:

• Etern­al life;
• Will be raised up by Jesus on the last day;
• Lives in Jesus;
• Will draw life from Jesus; 5) and finally,
• Will live forever.

Jesus is the liv­ing bread because those who believe in him have their spir­itu­al hun­ger and thirst sat­is­fied. By sac­ri­fi­cing his own phys­ic­al body in his death on the cross, Jesus becomes the spir­itu­ally sat­is­fy­ing bread. He becomes the bread of life and the liv­ing bread. In this sense then, he can con­vin­cingly say that this spir­itu­al bread is “my flesh.”

Interrogations

Dur­ing his Ser­mon on the Mount, Jesus reminded his listen­ers to be care­ful because “not every­one who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the king­dom of heav­en, only the one who does the will of my Fath­er in heav­en” (Matt 7:21). Faith and love that are not trans­lated into real life are mean­ing­less (cf. 1Cor 13:1–3; Jas 2:14–17). On the dis­par­ity between the faith we pro­fess and our actions, Jesus asks, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46). In as much as Jesus assures us that who­ever eats his body and drinks his blood will live forever, we should not relent in liv­ing our lives for oth­ers. On this, we must ask ourselves:

• How has the par­ti­cip­a­tion at the Euchar­ist affected my life?
• Has the Holy Com­mu­nion influ­enced my words and my actions?
• Has it changed my rela­tion­ship with others?
• Does it lead me to speak­ing the truth?
• Does it make me con­trib­ute to the well-being of the community?
• Is my par­ti­cip­a­tion at the body and blood of Christ an end in themselves?
• Does the Euchar­ist make me faith­ful, obed­i­ent, hon­est, just, and God fearing?
• Am I a con­vinced Chris­ti­an or a mere churchgoer?
• How has my recep­tion of the Holy Com­mu­nion affected my rela­tion­ship with my wife and my children?
• Has my par­ti­cip­a­tion at the Euchar­ist improved my spirituality?

Conclusion

“Jesus said, I am the bread of life; who­ever comes to me will nev­er hun­ger, and who­ever believes in me will nev­er thirst. I am the liv­ing bread that came down from heav­en. Who­ever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (Jn. 6:35.51). This mys­tery is at the heart of the Cath­ol­ic Euchar­ist­ic theo­logy. In the ele­ments of bread and wine, Jesus’ Body and Blood are made truly present. When we share in the Body and Blood of Christ, Jesus him­self comes to dwell with­in us. This com­mu­nion with the Lord makes us one body, brings us etern­al life, and sends us forth to be Christ’s body for the life of the world. The Jews could not com­pre­hend this mys­tery because they were spir­itu­ally indis­posed. As Jesus warned, detached from him, we are noth­ing and can do noth­ing (cf. John 15:1–11). We must be wise (cf. Second Read­ing). To detach one­self from the One sent by God is to be spir­itu­ally por­ous. We must avoid this griev­ous error. Jesus as the “liv­ing bread” has a bilat­er­al sig­ni­fic­ance. It refers to the One sent by God and to the recip­i­ents of this Divine Love.

Just as Jesus is the liv­ing bread, who­ever eats this bread also becomes liv­ing. Thus, by becom­ing liv­ing, the per­son will have etern­al life and there­fore, will live forever. Jesus as the bread of life means he gives etern­al life to those who believe in God by believ­ing in him. May you par­take daily in this flesh and blood of the Son of Man by believ­ing and trust­ing in Jesus and by tak­ing part in the Holy Euchar­ist. In addi­tion, and more import­antly, may par­tak­ing in the body and blood of Jesus reflect in our words and actions. By so doing, we shall become authen­t­ic wit­nesses to the Gos­pel and to the truth. Taste and see that the Lord is good! Have a nice week and God bless you. Sha­lom!

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