Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Profound Means We Find Union With God

 Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, August 18, 2024

From the ancient times to the present day, some Christians have tried to misread, to misinterpret, and to soften what Jesus meant when he said, “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.” They argue that Jesus was speaking figuratively, that his words should be understood from the standpoint of metaphor, a sign and a symbol. But what these people refuse to take into account is the reaction and response of the crowd, the Jewish crowd that first heard Jesus make the audacious claim of the sacramentality of his Body and Blood. When Jesus declares himself as the “living bread that came down from heaven” the crowd queried: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” They know Jesus is not speaking in a metaphoric manner. They understand he is not peddling in a symbolic language; that is why they protested.

But why did the Jews react negatively to his language? Littered in the Hebrew Scripture, which is the Old Testament, is the prohibition of eating meat with blood. In Genesis, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, the eating of meat with blood is obviously forbidden. The blood of an animal was seen as its life. So, it was not only disgusting for Jews to eat raw meat, it is against their law. Now, if the consumption of animal flesh and blood was forbidden by their law, how much more human flesh and blood? Yet, that’s what he says. Jesus was given every opportunity to render his word more acceptable by making them metaphorical and symbolic. But rather than take that route, he doubles down. When his Jewish audience rightfully asked, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus ratcheted up and intensified his language: “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.” 

Come with me to John 3:1-21. In this chapter we read of a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews who came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you are doing unless God is with him.” Refusing to get carried away by the Pharisee’s nice words, Jesus immediately said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again.” At this point, the Pharisee got confused. He took Jesus’s words literally. So, he asked Jesus, “How can a person once grown old be born again?” Nicodemus’ question is a question of clarification: How can an adult return to the mother’s womb and be born all over again? Jesus realized Nicodemus is interpreting his language strictly and literally. So, he corrects him, “No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” Jesus is speaking about baptism. So, we have an account of Jesus in the Bible clarifying himself when he was misunderstood or taken too literally. 

But in our Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus’ speech was also taken literally. When he said, “The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world,” the Jews agitated, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” They took him literally and resisted him. But rather than clarify his statement, Jesus doubles down: “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.” The Lord was given the chance to render his language as a metaphor but rather than do so, he raises the temperature. He makes it more vividly realistic and if you want, more appalling. To rob it in, he adds, “For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” No religious founder or leader: Moses, Elijah, the Buddha, Mohammad etc. ever spoke that way. What does this tell us? It communicates profoundly that Christianity is not primarily a system of ideas or moral recommendation. Jesus is not one teacher or guru among the many. Christianity is a relationship to Jesus. It is an organic friendship with him. We remain in him and he remains in us. What is the means by which we remain in him and he in us? It is primarily the eating of his Body and the drinking of his Blood. So, see the Eucharist as the most profound, the most supreme and the most real way to remain in Jesus and Jesus in you. Look at the Eucharist as the real and concrete way you can remain in the Lord and the Lord remains in you. As the song goes: “Look beyond the Bread you eat, see your Savior and your Lord; Look beyond the Cup you drink, see his love poured out as blood.” This substantial change happens at the deepest level, and not at the level of appearance or taste. This is what we call Transubstantiation, which says that in the great act of consecration, the substance of the bread and wine, their deepest and core reality changes into the Body and Blood of Jesus, even as the appearances of the bread and wine remain. The Eucharist is finally the means we find union with God. 

May God bless you!

And may God grant you peace!