Jn 6:52-59
The Jews were arguing among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus replied, “Truly, I say to you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
My flesh is really food, and my blood is truly drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood, live in me, and I in them. Just as the Father, who is life, sent me, and I have life from the Father, so whoever eats me will have life from me. This is the bread from heaven; not like that of your ancestors, who ate and later died. Those who eat this bread will live forever.”
Jesus spoke in this way in Capernaum when he taught them in the synagogue.
REFLECTION
The custom of eating bread, the bones and flesh of Huitzilopochtli, was the ancient Aztecs’ way of communing with him and is called teoqualo, “god is eaten.” Every May and December, an image of this god is made from dough, broken in pieces and solemnly eaten. This practice was also common among the Aryans of ancient India. The Brahmans offered rice-cakes and converted ritually into the real bodies of men. (Eating the God among the Aztecs, Sir J. George. The Golden Bough)
The pagan rituals tried to honestly verbalize the ancients’ communion with their gods. Polytheism arose out of finite man’s desire to capture the immense divine power. Thus, the ancients ended up with many gods/goddesses. Divine revelation sets apart Christianity from other faiths, because Jesus Christ is God-in-person, incarnated (in+carx, flesh) through whom God has spoken. The Eucharistic meal is not humanly fabricated, but since the beginning is based on God’s love He shares with us his eternal life. To be with Jesus Christ, in whom the fullness of divinity dwells, He calls us to a lifelong humility. “Receive what you are.” (Augustine). That makes Christ incarnated in us and his life becomes ours. We are “alter Christus.”
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