Gospel Commentary: Christ's 'Real' Presence

By Fr. Jack Peterson
Herald Columnist
(From the issue of 8/14/03)

Certain solemnities such as Christmas, Easter and Holy Trinity make a priest feel profoundly unworthy to preach. He has this deep sense that the God of the Mystery we celebrate that day can never be proclaimed adequately by the words that proceed from his lips. Other Gospel passages throughout the year evoke a similar response. The Beatitudes and today’s Gospel are on that list.

John 6:51-58 represents the very heart of Jesus’ commentary on the Eucharist, the most precious gift He left to the Church. His words are the richest source of biblical revelation on the meaning of the gift He would bestow upon His Church at the Last Supper. Pope John Paul II recently said: "The Eucharist, as Christ’s saving presence in the community of the faithful and its spiritual food, is the most precious possession which the Church can have in her journey through history." (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, No.9) May the Lord pour out His Holy Spirit anew upon Christians around the world and raise up our minds and hearts to see and appreciate the supreme beauty of the Holy Eucharist.

The aspect of this gift that stands out above all the others is the reality of Christ’s real presence under the form of the bread and wine. Christ’s listeners were rather skeptical about His promise to give them His body and blood for their nourishment. He had plenty of opportunities in this dialogue to suggest a symbolic understanding of His presence, but He did the opposite. When asked how He could give His followers his flesh to eat, He made it clear that He meant to be taken literally: "For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink." As the catechism reminds us, "This presence is called ‘real’… because it is presence in the fullest sense; that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present." (CCC, 1374)

In the Incarnation, Christ crashed into the world to restore His children to life. He came to heal and renew our frail and sinful human lives with His merciful love and healing grace. That alone was an enormous task and a fabulous gift. But His love does not stop there. The radical truth is that He also came to give us a share in His own Divine life. He chose to reach down to us, lift us up and grant us a share in His very own life. "I have come that you may have life and have it in abundance" (Jn 10:10). The Eucharist both offers and nourishes this divine life within us. "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…"(Jn 6:53). The Eucharist is the source and summit of our new life in Christ.

In Jesus, God chose to pitch His tent among us. Jesus gave a human face to God, the Father. He ate with us, He cried for us, He preached to us, He healed us, and He suffered and died for us. He established deep relationships with many of His followers. The intimacy Christ had with His disciples was a way of extending a share in the Divine life He came to offer. It was a grace that He wanted to extend to every member of His flock, and He chose to do so through the gift of the Eucharist. "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him" (Jn 6:56). Through our sharing in the Body and Blood of Christ, we enter into a profound union, a holy communion, with the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. What a magnificent gift!

In a sense, there need be no homily this weekend. The Gospel should just be read and pondered in all of its simplicity and beauty. Christ gives His own homily, preaching the Good News of the Gospel of life, poured out, celebrated, worshiped and tasted in the Holy Communion.

Fr. Peterson is campus minister at Marymount University in Arlington. He resides at the Youth Apostles Institute in McLean.

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