Sermon for the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

“The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:51)

In one way, the Gospel of John is the ultimate chick flick. It's about three hours of Jesus talking, and talking and talking. On the other hand, most of Jesus's talking isn't getting him any love. For most of these three hours, "the Jews" are just getting madder and madder at Jesus. This long chapter six has had the same effect on Christians. Is Jesus saying that the bread and the wine really is his physical body and blood, or is he really saying that the bread and wine are symbols of his spiritual presence? And just like "the Jews," we Christians have argued among ourselves and had a grand adventure in missing the point. We have argued so much about the bread and wine that we have forgotten that most real presence of Jesus is in each and every single one of us.

So, back to the chick flick. Jesus has been talking for the last four weeks, with one Sunday yet to come. And all his talking has hit a wall with his fellow Jews. Even his disciples are clueless. First he feeds 5,000, to which the people respond, Oh Jesus we love you and we want to make you our King. To which Jesus responds, No, you really just want me to give you more bread. But Moses gave us bread in the wilderness, they come back with. No, Jesus corrects them, God gave your ancestors the bread and then they died. You need the bread of everlasting life. So can you give us this bread, they ask? Sure, Jesus answers, I'm that bread. You don't really mean that, do you Jesus? Oh but I do, Jesus says today. Unless you chew and gnaw on my flesh, and consume every ounce of my blood, you're dead. The Greek word translated as "eat," really means to chew. The language is shocking, but it is the language that Jesus uses. That's why we keep the reserved sacrament in the aumbry, and why we keep a candle lit whenever there is consecrated bread and wine in there. Jesus holds nothing back when he gives himself to us. And as long as that lamp is lit, then know that Jesus is here.

One mistake that too many Christians have made through the centuries has been to try and improve Jesus’s explanation. Transubstantiation, consubstantiation, transsignification, are all long words that human beings have invented to try and make sense of Jesus's words today. The doctrine of the Real Presence is not a philosophical insight, or a scientific theory. It is a mystery that is revealed to us, which we accept on the basis of our trust in Jesus Christ. Perhaps the truest words ever spoken about the Real Presence may have been the briefest. The words belong to Queen Elizabeth I, who when asked for her opinion, simply said, "Twas God the word that spake it, He took the bread and brake it; And what the word did make it; That I believe, and take it." We trust Jesus’s word that he is as close to us as our own tongue, our own stomach, our own heart.

Another mistake that Christians have made through the centuries is that they have focused too much on Jesus being really present in the bread and wine. Yes, when we eat this bread and drink this wine, we receive Jesus’s Body and Blood. But for what? Is the point that Jesus is present in the bread and wine, or that Jesus is present in each of us? Perhaps we focus on the altar because, if we begin to reflect on what Jesus shares with us, that sharing will not stop until we die. “The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh,” Jesus says. Each Sunday, we relive Jesus’s Last Supper with his disciples. More than that, we relive his Passion, his death on the Cross, and his Resurrection from the tomb.

When we share the bread, we share in his death, by which he gave his life for the life of this world. And when we share the wine, his life flows through us, giving new life to this broken world. Can we focus so much on the altar, the aumbry, the music and the chasuble, that we forget to die? The death of those we love, our own death, those things must come. But to share in the bread of life is also to die daily, to fear, to anger, to grief. Those are all a kind of death, because fear, anger and death feed on hopelessness and loneliness. The Good News is that when we share the bread, then Jesus shares our small deaths. We are not alone. And when we share the wine, then Jesus brings new life out of our small deaths: new relationships, new hope, new joy.

Jesus is really and truly present, in this bread and wine given for our eternal life, and in all our joys and hopes, our grief and our anguish. For His word spake it; He took the bread and brake it; so what His word has made it, believe and take it.