Back To School

Dear Parishioners, 

Schools throughout the valley, including our own OLPH School, have either just begun the new academic 
year or will be doing so in the coming days. We wish blessings upon all the students from pre-school through 
those studying for advanced degrees, praying that this may be a year of growth in knowledge, but also in 
grace, goodness and wisdom for each one. At our Masses this weekend we will have a special blessing for students and for teachers.

This weekend we continue to reflect on the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. In today’s passage (verses 51-58) the 
murmuring against the teaching has deteriorated into quarreling. Those shocked by the words of Jesus ask: “How can 
this man give us his flesh to eat?” 

It is a good question. If Jesus were an ordinary man, he could not do this – period! If Jesus were one of the great prophets, he could not do this. But Jesus is much more. Thus, in this teaching Jesus is not only speaking about the Eucharist; he is also revealing the depth of his identity. He would continue revealing his identity more fully a few chapters later when he again shocked his contemporaries by saying, “… before Abraham came to be, I AM” (John 8:58, the context is a fascinating passage from verses 31-59 of chapter 8). In this statement, he attributes to himself the same identity that God revealed to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:13-15). This claim of Jesus was blasphemous to the ears of many.  Then another two chapters later, Jesus makes the mind-blowing claim, “the Father and I are one” (John 10:30). These claims would eventually be vindicated in his death and resurrection! 

Thus, Jesus can indeed offer us this gift of his flesh to eat, of his very Self because he is the Word made flesh dwelling among us (John 1:14)! He is truly God and truly human. He is the Lord of all creation and, because he is, Jesus can transform that deepest substance of bread and wine into his very Self. He continues: 

    -- Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. 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. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one 
who feeds on me will have life because of me. --

Here Jesus reveals his purpose. The gift of the Eucharist is so that we might have life and have it more abundantly 
(John 10:10). The bread and wine that are transformed to become the Eucharist are a gift meant in turn to transform you and me. We receive Holy Communion precisely to enter communion with the Lord – so that we may grow more fully into his likeness. We do indeed offer adoration to the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, but Jesus wants far more. We can and should adore our marvelous God in the Eucharist and in countless different ways. The deepest dimension of the Eucharist is that invitation from Jesus to our personal transformation. Christ invites us to communion to be united with him, gives us the opportunity to be renewed with him and conformed to him in and through this great Sacrament. As St. Augustine (as well as many of the great patristic fathers) said, we are to “become what you eat.” (Augustine, Sermon 272). Or as a more contemporary theologian recently put it: “When we say ‘Amen’ to the host, we are not saying ‘let this bread be the body of Christ’ we are saying ‘let this body of Christ make me into the body of Christ’ – we are saying let this Communion re-make me” (Fr. Edward Hauschild, Sursum Corda, April 23, 2023). 

This requires of us the “proper disposition,” the state of mind and heart in which we want to be transformed. My hope and prayer are that each of us will develop that disposition, and that as we eat Christ’s flesh and drink his blood, we will open ourselves to the transformation which Jesus intends and to which he invites us! 

Jesus, Bread of life, renew our spirits. Holy Mary, who gave flesh to Jesus, pray that we will allow your Son to transform us! 

Father Craig