True Food

A Reflection on this Friday’s Gospel John 6:52-59, 19 April 2024

     When someone is dying or in danger of death, the Church, through a Priest, Deacon, or a specially trained and deputed Layperson, brings them the Eucharist. As Jesus tells us in the Gospel today, this is “true food.” It is called Viaticum, which is from the Latin meaning, “provisions or food for the journey.” It is the last and most important meal for those who pass from this life into eternity. In this, the Lord gives the dying His divine strength to bring them miraculously home.

     When I was dating, many years ago, my girlfriend and I decided that it would be fun to hike part of the Appalachian trail. Serving in the Army at the time, I had just come back from a deployment and had a box of Combat Rations in the trunk of my car. I thought “C-Rations” would be perfect for our meals … and cheap! So, I loaded several boxes in my pack.

     As we made camp the first evening, I lit our small camp stove and started boiling water to warm the cans of food. Normally, while deployed, we ate them cold but, I wanted to impress this woman, so I went, the “extra mile.” As the cans warmed, I generously gave my girlfriend the choice of one of two culinary delights, corned beef hash or ham and eggs. She reluctantly chose the hash. So, I pulled out the can opener, opened the can, and gave her a plastic spoon innocently believing that this was going to be a great meal.

     My girlfriend looked at the fat still clinging to the top of the can, took a sniff of the aroma wafting from the warmed food and said, “you want me to eat this? It looks and smells like dogfood, and I am not going to see if it tastes like dogfood.” The next day, our first stop was to ditch the C-Rations and buy more edible delights.

     C-Rations, like today’s much more edible Meals Ready to Eat (MRE’s), are super-charged with the calories and nutrients required for military personnel to meet the high energy demands of training or actual combat operations. They typically contain about 1,200 to 1,300 calories per meal. Though that corned beef may not have been what my girlfriend was looking for in a meal, it is really the best meal she could have eaten.

     In the Gospel today, Jesus tells His disciples,

"Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you. 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. (John 6:53–55 NABRE)

     God knows what we need to pass through this world to our heavenly home. He gives us “true food,” His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Eucharist. This is not some memorial or facsimile. That can’t be “true food.” Jesus gives us His being, fills us with His divine life, such that we have the temperance we need to resist sin, the prudence to live with and in love, and the courage to shine the light of Christ into the world. In the Eucharist, Jesus fills us, feeds us, body, and soul. Do we really grasp this? It is miraculous! Like those C-Rations, we need supercharged, supernatural, food for the journey.

     The Lord does not equivocate. This is no metaphor! The Gospel of John is quite clear, many are offended and walk away (John 6:66). He does not chase after them and soften His words. In the Eucharist, under the appearance of bread and wine, our Lord’s flesh and blood is eternal, divine, life! Love always seeks union with the beloved. The love of God for us is so immense that He desires for us to possess Him not only in heaven, but also here below, by the most intimate union of our body and souls with His being. That is why the Church not only offers the Eucharist on Sunday’s or “Special Days” but, every day. It is the food we need. It should be the food we desire more than anything else. It is the Real Presence of the Lord.

     Rejoice today in the Lord’s gift of Himself in the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. As you stand in line to receive the Eucharist consider that you are like the bride approaching your beloved who gave His life to be intimately united with you. He knows that we need Him, “true food,” to live. That is why we fall on our knees before our beloved.

     There is an entire world that needs the Lord’s Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity to truly live. The Lord commands, “take and eat; this is my body.” (Matthew 26:26) The Greek word for “body” is sōma (σῶμα), meaning the body as a whole or all of Christ’s being. Tell the world that the Lord is waiting to fill them completely, intimately, such that He might fully live, “abide,” in them, and they in Him. This is the food we all need to complete our journey. His flesh is true food. His blood is true drink!

Christ is risen! Alleluia!

End Notes

Blogger. (2019, June 20). What is the Eucharist or communion? Five points on the Eucharist to share from the Bible and Catechism. Catholic News World. https://www.catholicnewsworld.com/2019/06/what-is-eucharist-or-communion-5-points.html?m=1

New American Bible. Revised Edition (NABRE). Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2011. Print.