“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.”
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”
POINTERS FOR PRAYER
1. Jesus tells us that to have life we need more than physical nourishment. How have you been aware of deeper hungers? What has met that deeper longing in you?
2. Jesus speaks about ‘drawing life’ from him. In day to day living what are the practices which support your faith and help you to draw life from Jesus?
3. The Eucharist is one of the ways in which we draw life from Jesus. Recall with gratitude how the Eucharist has been a source of nourishment and life for you.
4. Perhaps you can also think of human examples of people drawing life from one another. From whom have you drawn life? Who has been able to draw life from you?
The Feast of Corpus Christi provides a welcome opportunity to reflect on what we “do” when we “do” Eucharist. Emphasis is on the “doing” because there is a risk of treating the feast as a doctrinal abstraction, focussing on Eucharistic Presence only.
It has been a long time since the Lord’s Supper was embedded in a regular dinner. But the teaching of St Paul can still speak: recognising the body means accepting all around us as our brothers and sisters, without distinction. The same Christ is present in the bread and in our neighbour. We cannot accept him in the sacrament and then not recognise him in the neighbour, especially the neighbour in need. Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ, is all of us and our prayer is that we may become what we receive. Amen.
Lord, as gather around your table, help to recognise you in the breaking of the bread and in each other. May we live the communion we receive by practicing both service and reconciliation. Amen.