In the name of the father, and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, One God. Amen.
In today’s Gospel, Christ explains to his followers that he
himself is the living bread and that only those who eat his flesh and drink his
blood abide with him, comparing the temporary life offered through the manna
given by God to Moses and the Israelites in the desert to the eternal life
offered through his body and blood. For those around him, this was a difficult thing
to hear, as the reactions show. Even amongst the disciples this is the case, as
the verses beyond today’s Gospel tell us that they said that “this is a hard
saying” and that many who had been following him walked with him no more after
hearing this.
Though reading this chapter of St John’s Gospel brings
thoughts to our minds such as “how can these people walk away like this” we see
it all too often today when speaking to those about the Orthodox faith. To tell
someone who is not Orthodox that the Eucharist is the body and blood of Christ
is to invite a long winded debate about the difference between the real
presence and symbolism and we must accept that, for even those who walked with
Christ and heard him speak these words found the saying hard to comprehend.
Looking to the sayings of the fathers on this matter, the
Eucharistic significance of the passage cannot be disputed as is the emphasis
on the importance of the Eucharist in our Salvation. In St John Chrysostom’s
commentary on the passage, we are told that it is a grave error to try to
understand how we can eat the body of Christ in a physical sense and that “When
we converse of spiritual things, let there be nothing secular in our souls.“
Regardless, Saint John Chrysostom goes on to tell us that throughout
this passage Christ “continually handles the subject of the Mysteries, showing
the necessity of the action, and that it must by all means be done,” even if we
do not understand why. In this, Saint John Chrysostom asks us not to try to
understand how we receive Christ through consuming the Eucharistic offering,
simply to understand that it is a necessity of our Christian life.
And so we must ask, why is the Eucharist so important, and
why is partaking this this mystery the way to be one with Christ? According to
the Romanian Monastic thinker, Elder Cleopa, “to commune of the body and the
blood of our Lord is a command of God,” this is again supported by today’s
Gospel when Christ says that “unless you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” In this, the
Eucharist becomes the receiving of life through the Body and Blood of Christ
and therefore the true bread of life.
Amongst the Early Church fathers we see many
statements explaining the nature of this bread and the evidential True Presence
of Christ in this Holy Sacrament. We see
this view defended by great Theologians such as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus and Ignatius
of Antioch. These fathers, as the defenders of the Apostolic faith made it
their duty to defend the teachings of the Apostles who heard this hard saying
and came to terms with the mystery. As those who stand before the altar 2000
years later hearing the same words, we must ourselves come to terms with this
hard saying ourselves, as though we are standing before Christ as he says that “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood” there
is no life in us.
In accepting this, we must face the
difficulty of comprehension and will most likely at times find the saying hard
like the apostle did, especially in a world where everything is to be
questioned, so we must also remember to take the words of St John Chrysostom on
this matter to heart and “let there be nothing secular in our souls” when
we approach this blessed gift, we must clear our minds of all attempts to
approach the mystery as though it were an aspect of our worldly lives, and
resist looking at it through the lense of worldly scrutiny. This daunting prospect
of receiving the Body of the Son of Man must be approached on a separate level
and with a far greater sense of reverence than any other moment in our lives,
as it is a vital part of our salvation in Christ.
“How can we do this?” We may ask, as our lives are full of
worries and concerns leaving us with little time to prepare to receive this
greatest of gifts, and this is most certainly one of the most important
questions we ask ourselves as we prepare for communion. To answer this
question, we must understand the importance of the gift itself, for which we
can turn to the most common prayer in all of Christianity, the Lord’s Prayer,
which asks for God to “give us this day our daily bread.” As Christ told his
Disciples in the Gospel today, the daily bread he gives is not a temporarily
sustaining daily bread like that which came down in the Desert but the “bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not
die.” In preparing to receive this Sacrament, we must see it as such, as a
lifegiving bread, as the Body of our Lord himself.
After coming to terms with the immensity of the Gift, we
need to see its place in the life of the Church, since as Abba Haliegebriel
reminds us, “all of the other Church Mysteries and works of the Church are
oriented towards the Sacrament.” So in the same way as the life of the Church
resolves around preparing for this gift, we must always work to prepare
ourselves to receive this Holy Sacrament through our prayers and actions.
During the Liturgy itself we pray to be counted worthy to receive this,
admitting our unworthiness. In this humility we must live our daily lives,
preparing for the Kingdom of Heaven.
If we remember this and spend our lives in contemplation of
the immensity of this gift and its central role in our salvation we can start
to shape our lives in a way which prepares us to receive it, never approaching
it with secular thoughts and always remembering that this is the presence of Christ,
given for the remission of our sins. It is in which submission and humility
that we can overcome this hard saying and making Christ and his Church central
to our lives.
I would like to leave you with a quote from the Coptic Monk,
Fr. Matta El-Meskeen. He says “True movement towards God is in Christ, for he
is the Son of God who comes to us on the cross, and on the cross we follow him
back to the father.” As we prepare to receive the body of the son of man we
must cast aside the thoughts which come from the world and focus on Christ, for
he gave himself up for the sin of the world and gives himself to us through the
bread of life, and only those who receive this gift for what it is can take up their cross and follow
him to the father.
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