19th SUNDAY in ORDINARY TIME

Gospel Bullet Points (John 6:41-51)

• The Jews that Jesus addressed in the gospel had gathered to ask Him for more bread. Instead, Jesus promised to give them spiritual food and drink—His body and blood.
• Jesus told the crowd that he is the living bread that came down from heaven, and whoever eats this bread will live forever—the bread which is his flesh for the life of the world (v 51).
• However, their worldly mentality could not understand this spiritual food Jesus offered them. The crowd could not understand nor believe that this man could give his flesh for them to eat (v. 52). But Jesus reaffirmed his claim by saying, “My flesh is true food and, my blood is true drink” (v 55). They could not accept this new teaching. So, they started to dissociate themselves from Jesus.
• That problem persists up to these moments. Reservations and even disbelief in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist still stick around.
• At the last supper, Jesus instituted the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist so that we may have life and have it fully. Through the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, the bread and the wine become the real flesh and blood of Jesus, becoming real food and drink for us.
• If we are convinced that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, then our reception of His body during communion must transform our lives into Christ. The statement that “we become what we eat” should be more than true in the Eucharistic experience. The hands that you use to receive the body of Jesus, are they not the same hands that hurt people, the hands that refuse to give? The tongue, is it, not the tongue that destroys the good name of others?
• Each time we receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, may we experience His transforming love.