This weekend we celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ.  The Gospel which we hear is from John 6:51-58.  In this text Jesus tells his disciples that “my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.” To understand this text I wonder if we need to reflect more deeply on what is real food and real drink.  Food is one of the basic necessities of life.  To put it frankly, if we don’t eat we will eventually die.  So food, real food, keeps us alive. Beyond that we are ever more conscious today that the food we take into ourselves affects the person that I am.  The expression, ‘you are what you eat’ has never been more true.  We are conscious that the choices we make around food affect our health and wellbeing.  That is true as individuals and as a society. The real food we eat helps to shape us into who we are.  The same can be said of real drink.

If the body and blood of Christ is real food and real drink then it must work in a similar way.  For Christians the food and drink of the Eucharist keep us alive.  Receiving the bread and wine of the Eucharist affects the person that I am becoming.  That Eucharistic food is the way in which we take Christ into ourselves and are shaped by Christ.  We receive the body of Christ and we become the body of Christ.  Eating and drinking the Eucharistic food is a communal undertaking.  We do not just have communion on our own.  The very word communion means ‘with union’.  It is together, with each other, that we are nourished and formed by the bread of life and the cup of salvation.  The real food and real drink of the Eucharist is given to a ‘people’. That people is formed into the people of God.

The people of God is fed on the bread of life.  So the people of God stand for life over death. The people of God is fed on the bread of justice.  So the people of God stand for the dignity and human rights for all.  The people of God is fed on the bread of forgiveness.  So the people of God stand for new beginnings and fresh starts.  The people of God is fed on the bread of peace.  So the people of God stand against any form of violence or oppression.  The people of God is fed on the bread of healing. So the people of God reach out to all who are ill or suffer in any way.  The people of God is fed on the bread of compassion and mercy.  So the people of God have eyes to see and ears to hear the cry of the poor.

As a people of God we are aware that we are always in further need of the nourishment that the food of the Eucharist gives. We are always striving to become the food we eat.  We are not there yet.  Perhaps this is what Pope Francis meant when he said the ‘Eucharist is bread of sinners not reward of saints.’

It is right that over the next two weekends we welcome young parishioners to the Eucharistic table where they will join the people of God who continue to gather and eat real food and real drink: the body and blood of Christ.

By Fr Brendan