Hi everyone. Welcome back to logical bible
study. This is where we take a look at
the Gospel reading from today's Catholic mass and we give you
the tools to do an exegesis on the text.
What might the literal sense of the text be?
What's the author trying to communicate to their original
audience? And that's where we always want
to start as Catholics because that's where the true original
meaning is. And today we're looking at a
really interesting text, which is generated a lot of discussion
and informs Catholic teaching a great deal.
So we're looking today, John chapter 6 verses 52 to 59 The
Jews started arguing with one another, how can this man give
us his flesh to eat? Jesus replied, I tell you, most
solemnly, if you do not eat the Flesh of the son of man and
drink his blood, you will not have life in you.
Anyone who does, Eat My Flesh and drink, my blood has eternal
life and I shall raise him up on the last day.
For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
He who eats my flesh and drinks, my blood lives in me and I live
in him. As I who am sent by the living,
father, myself draw life from the father.
So whoever eats me will draw life from me.
This is the bread come down from heaven.
Not like the bread, our ancestors ate, they are dead,
but anyone who eats this bread will live forever.
He taught this Doctrine, a Capernaum in the synagogue.
So, what's the context if you've been following along in the last
few days? You'll know that we're in the
Eucharistic discourse and that's happening at the synagogue in
Capernaum. If you haven't been listening to
the last few days episodes, then I recommend going back and
listening to those. So you can get the context for
what Jesus has said in this long sermon just before this.
So just before we get to verse 52 today, Jesus has said this, I
am the true bread which comes down from heaven, whoever eat of
it, whoever eats of Will never die.
And then right at the end, he specified that the bread which
they need to eat, is his flesh. So that's what happened last
time. So that prompts the crowd.
Now listed here is the Jews sort of the crowd who's interested in
believing in Jesus. They start arguing with each
other because he has just said, you need to eat my flesh.
The Greek here for them arguing is literally fought.
It's quite an aggressive fight, amongst the people.
There's a big disagreement and then probably interpreting what
he said in different ways. So that thing that arguing with
each other about is this phrase, how can this man?
Give us his flesh to eat and that is a fair question.
What do they mean by this? Well, there's two possible
meanings here, they could be saying, how can he physically?
Give us his flesh to eat as in? It's a physical science,
question, or it could mean something like this, why would
he want to give us his flesh to eat?
Because to the Jews? Some of them would be quite
appalled by this idea that Jesus would want people to eat his
flesh because according to the Jewish law, set out in the
Torah, Jews are not allowed to eat flesh or blood.
Well, particularly flesh that has blood in it and that's
specified in The Vedic has 17 and 19.
So to the Jews, eating flesh of a human would be Unthinkable.
Jews would not do that. So they're just not sure why
Jesus would suggest such a thing.
Now, they're if that's what they're thinking of their
thinking of it in terms that are quite cannibalistic.
Now, that's not what Jesus is teaching.
Jesus is not saying whatever he's saying, he's certainly not
saying you need to physically eat My physical flesh that you
see right in front of you. He's not saying that.
And as we go on to see, Jesus is talking about a different kind
of eating and in particular, he refers to himself as living
bread. So it's not a cannibalistic
thing where the person is dead and you're eating their dead
flesh. Jesus flesh is constantly living
his the living bread. There's some other interesting
things about this, though, that's worth looking at.
Jesus doesn't correct them. He doesn't if they have
misunderstood he doesn't correct them.
So when they say, how can this man give us his flesh to eat if
they had misunderstood this would be his opportunity to
correct them which he does do. Another places in fact, two
chapters earlier in John chapter 4, verse 32, to 34, Jesus is
talking about bread and they misunderstand what kind of bread
he's talking about. He actually corrects them here.
He doesn't correct the crowd. He seems to think that what
they're saying is basically right there are sumption.
That Jesus is trying to give his flesh for them to eat is correct
and he doesn't, he doesn't try to correct them there.
But he doesn't answer their question, either.
How can this man? Give us his flesh to eat?
He doesn't really answer that in this discourse.
He only answers that in the last supper and certainly at the Last
Supper, a lot of the people that were, there would have been here
in this scene as well. So, in the Last Supper, they
would have looked back on John, chapter 6, and realized that the
last supper is the Fulfillment of what he promised about.
Giving them his flesh verse 53. He says, I tell you most
solemnly, which means he's about How to say something quite
serious. If you do not eat the Flesh of
the son of man and drink his blood.
Now, let's pause here. Jesus.
Adds in a new element that hasn't been in there before.
So not only do people need to eat his flesh to inherit eternal
life. They need to drink his blood.
Notice the physicalness of it. The object of the eating is his
actual flesh and blood If you do not eat the Flesh of the son of
man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you.
So that means they won't have God's Divine Life if they don't
eat his flesh and drink his blood.
Now, Jesus clearly here can't be teaching cannibalism because
he's talking as we know from other places in the Gospel of
John, he's talking about Divine Life, he's not talking about
physical immortality. He's talking about Divine life
living forever in eternity. That's the kind of eating that
people can derive from his flesh and his blood so it's not
cannibalism. Anyone who does Eat My Flesh and
drinks. My blood has eternal life.
So, on the other hand, if you do what he's Flesh and Blood you do
have eternal life. Now, what does it mean to say,
eating? Jesus, flesh and blood and this
is the real question. There's two possible
interpretations. It could mean something
spiritual is in, its meditating on and following Jesus.
Recognizing his identity believing in him.
Following him that's one interpretation or it could mean
that Jesus is being a bit more literal here.
And Jesus is saying, you need to literally eat his literal flesh
and literal blood, something like that.
Is there a way that we can work out which of the two?
He means there's Arguments for both views, and we want to look
a bit about the pros and cons of each.
Because this is such an important text in understanding,
Catholic teaching, in fact, Catholic teaching on the
Eucharist is based largely on John chapter 6 here.
And so, in this podcast where we look at the literal sense, the
very words of the text, we want to talk about the fours and
against of different ways of understanding this text.
So the first interpretation Tatian.
Is that his medal? He means meditating on and
following him in a spiritual way.
That's what it means to feed on Jesus.
The biggest argument for this interpretation is well, firstly,
because any physical interpretation might suggest
cannibalism. I think we've dealt with that.
If we understand, Jesus, words correctly, his not implying
cannibalism. But the other argument for
suggesting that this might be a spiritual meaning that Jesus is
intending, is the context of what he said.
So far up until this point in the sermon, his sermon has been
about believing in him believing that he is the son of man, and
that will give you eternal life. So there is a strong case there
if he's continuing with the same theme, that would make sense.
But there's also some strong arguments to suggest that Jesus
here on the literal level. When we look at what Jesus is
trying to communicate, here is talking in some sense about
literally eating his actual flesh and blood.
So let's look at some arguments for that.
So the Greek here suggests that Jesus is going for something a
bit more physical than just a spiritual eating of his flesh.
Shhhh, the reason we say that is because the word that's used for
eat, here is trog us and that has actually changed from the
word he used earlier earlier in the sermon.
He used a very general word for eating when he was talking about
the Manna in the wilderness. But now this point from about
verse 53 onwards, he actually switches verbs.
So his original hearers or certainly John's original
readers, who read the Greek would have noticed a shift in
Jesus. Meaning here, chagos the verb
that's used here. For each is a Physical word.
So the fact that he's changed verbs, suggest that Jesus has
actually shifted the conversation to a deeper level
trog. Us is a very graphic word and it
means to nor or chew so, very graphic kind of chewing
language. We know from other writings that
in this time period try gas was used to describe how animals
eat, it's what animals look like when they're eating, so that
would suggest that Jesus is communicating to His audience
that he's referring to a physical eating of some kind,
another argument that would suggest that he's talking here
about physical eating is because if you follow the conversation
up till this point, although it's true that he's been talking
about following him up till this point.
It seems that by this time most of the crowd that are still
there already believe in Jesus. They believe that he is the Son
of God, but it's this additional teaching that his presenting
about eating his flesh and blood that they're struggling with.
So they it seems that a lot of the crowd doesn't have a huge
problem with believing his identity.
Now, that might not be correct, but that's one thing to consider
here. Another interesting point to
now, I think that this is quite convincing actually is that if
we want to say that when Jesus says you need to eat my flesh
and drink, my blood, that that has a metaphorical meaning, the
problem with that is, we know that at that time period, the
phrase to eat flesh and drink blood already had a metaphorical
meaning to the Jews. In fact, if you look at the Old
Testament, the phrase to eat flesh and drink blood is used in
a metaphorical way, but it describes going to war it
describes the physicalness of Going to war as in killing
people, leaving blood in the streets, we see that in
Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 42 and Ezekiel 39:17 to 18.
So that is the Jewish metaphorical meaning at the time
of, Jesus of eating, flesh and drinking blood, but that meaning
doesn't make sense in this context.
So I think that is a pretty strong indicator that we should
rule out that the original readers would have understood
this metaphorically and then the last Going to make about this is
the way that this is later understood in the Bible itself.
So later in the old, in the New Testament, Paul explicitly says
that communion meal is a participation in the body and
blood of Christ. So that's in 1 Corinthians, 10,
verse 16 and then in 1 Corinthians 11, the next
chapter, he gets even more explicit and emphatic about
communion. He says that if you don't eat
communion properly, you're guilty of the body and the blood
of the Lord, that's 1 Corinthians 11 verse 23 to 29.
So certainly Paul understood at least the Last Supper when we do
communion at the Last Supper, that that is, in fact about
Jesus, flesh and blood. And so there is a reasonable
connection between Paul's teaching and Jesus own words,
here of Jesus, mentions flesh-and-blood in John, chapter
6, and then Paul mentions Flesh and blood in 1 Corinthians 11,
it probably means they're both thinking of the last supper.
I think that's a strong argument to make you.
So if we add in all those different factors, it does seem
that on the literal level Jesus is talking about some sort of
physical literal feeding on his flesh and blood though, not in a
cannibalistic way. And that latter interpretation,
that it's a physical. Eating is the Catholic teaching
the Catholic teaching as most of you would know, is that Jesus
really is talking. About the Eucharist here, that's
the Catholic teaching. Jesus, offers his flesh and
blood on the cross. But then his body is resurrected
to glory and it's his glorified flesh, after his resurrected and
gone to heaven. That's the flesh.
That's given to us in the Eucharist.
So in the Eucharist, we're not eating, Jesus, bloody Flesh on
the cross. Where actually consuming in a
sense, when it's probably understood, we're consuming his
body, that has been resurrected and glorified, so it's the real
substantial presence of Christ. Iced and the Catholic phrase for
the Eucharist. That's often used to describe it
is. It's the source and Summit of
the Christian life. So Jesus, finishes by saying
that if you eat my flesh and drink, my blood, I shall raise
him up on the last day and that's been discussed in
previous days when Jesus used that same phrase.
Verse 55 for my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
So Jesus is probably contrasting, this food with the
manor, The Manor. Wilderness wasn't perfect.
And in a sense, it's not real food and drink whereas Jesus
flesh and blood is real food and drink it's the true source of
eternal life. On the other hand, it could be
that Jesus, here by using the word real.
He's emphasizing that his body and blood, really our food and
drink verse 56, he who eats my flesh and drinks, my blood lives
in me and I live in him. So, this is quite a deep
theological teaching, Jesus is saying, but for those who choose
to eat his flesh and drink his blood, whatever, that means, it
mean it brings about a real Divine communion between
themselves and Jesus. Not a fake Community, not just a
spiritual nice idea. Someone who chooses to eat his
flesh and blood actually brings about a real communion between
themselves and Jesus. The word therefore remain.
Remains in me and I in him is meno in Greek.
And in John's gospel, that would meno designates this Mutual
indwelling of the father. And the son, this eternal
relationship between the father and the son, which people are
invited to be a part of. We see similar language when
Jesus talks about the Vine. I am the vine.
You are. The branches remain in me.
So that's very similar language. And what we see here in John,
chapter 6 is a similar thing, but it actually takes it
further. It's Jesus saying that to remain
in me. Must consume the Eucharist.
That's how we put all this theology together verse 57 as I
who am sent by the living. Father, myself draw life from
the father. So, Jesus as the son, the second
person of the Trinity, derives, all of his energy and his
teachings. And in fact, his very life comes
from the father. So, whoever eats might, whoever
eats me will draw life from me. Now, that's a pretty radical
claim Jesus says that through participating in his flesh and
blood in the Eucharist, people will actually draw Divine Life
from Jesus in the same way that he draws it from the father.
So it's like passing on that Divine Life down to us, that's
brought out later in John, chapter 17, verse 26.
When he said Jesus says the love with which you loved me.
May be in them and I in them. So that's what Jesus wants.
He wants us to be a part of this communion that he already has
with the father. We can say that this is why the
father instituted the Eucharist in the first place.
It wasn't just a nice idea. God, the Father actually wants
all believers to have real physical access to this Divine
life. That's their inheritance.
That's our inheritance as Christians as his sons and
daughters to have this access to the, to the Divine Life, and his
instituted, the Eucharist, so that we can have regular access
to that to the very flesh and blood of Jesus verse 58.
This is the bread come down from heaven, not like Read our
ancestors ate, they are dead, but anyone who eats this bread
will live forever. So Jesus is summarizing his
entire discourse. He's finishing up now and he
sums it up by returning to the opening scriptural text.
You remember this whole conversation started by talking
about the Manna in the wilderness.
And so Jesus returns to that here.
Jesus main point is the unlike the Manna in the wilderness as
good as it was, it could not give people everlasting life
even though it was bread from Heaven.
Whereas Jesus flesh is the true bread from heaven and it can
bring eternal life. Notice that phrase.
Here anyone who eats this bread will live forever.
That will live forever phrase. Sounds like kind of a fairytale
phrase, It's not used very often in the Bible.
It only occurs three times twice in this.
This discourse in John chapter 6 and one other place is in
Genesis 3:22 in connection with the Tree of Life, anyone who
eats from the Tree of Life we live forever.
The fact that that's the only place where these are mentioned
implies a strong connection to the tree of life.
So the Tree of Life, originally bore fruit to the broad about
physical immortality and the bread of life, according to
Catholic, tradition tradition is called the medicine of
immortality. That's what the Eucharist is a
brings about. Divine Supernatural, eternal
life. Verse 59, he taught this
Doctrine at Capernaum in the synagogue.
So if you've been following through chronologically Jesus
walks on water, the night before he then gets into the boat and
the boat lands at Capernaum, which is actually his hometown
and at Capernaum all the crowds flocked to him.
And he taught from the synagogue on that day.
It was quite common to have traveling grep, rabbis preach in
local synagogues and everyone would come from the township to
hear the local to hear the rabbi preach in the local synagogue.
Now that's the end of the bread of life discourse, essentially
in tomorrow's section will pick up ever 60 and we're going to
see what the crowd's reaction was, because Don John isn't
finished with this quite yet. He wants us to know how people
react to what Jesus says about eating his flesh and blood.
So, I want to include this quote, now, from the Catholic
commentary on sacred scripture for the Gospel of John, which I
think sums up this teaching on the Eucharist really.
Well it says the Holy Eucharist is the source and Summit of the
Christian Life. It is the real substantial
presence of Christ Among Us the body and blood together with the
soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And therefore the whole Christ is truly really and
substantially contained. According Adding to the Council
of Trent at every mess. Jesus gift of himself to the
father on the cross is made present again sacramentally in
the Eucharist and offered to us as they are food for eternal
life. Not only does the Eucharist
unite Believers to Christ. It also unites us to one another
as on radula back writes, the Eucharist makes the church.
If the holy spirit is the soul of the church, the Eucharist is
it's beating heart pumping, Christ's blood at, through the
members of his body, the church. If we are to grow in Holiness
and love, we must make the Eucharist the center of our
Lives because in doing so, We make a Christ, the center of our
Lives. If we receive Christ worthily in
the Eucharist and worship him, and Eucharistic adoration, he
will fill us with his grace and in larger Hearts to love and
serve more perfectly Eucharistic worship.
And adoration does not detract from works of Love, on the
contrary. It is what enables us to do them
in the first place. Consider these words of Blessed
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, if we truly understand the Christ.
If we make the Eucharist to the central focus of Our Lives, if
we feed our lives with the Eucharist, we will not find it
difficult to discover Christ to love him and to serve him in the
poor. So that's an extended quote, and
it brings together Church teachings and various courts
there. But I think it summarizes the
Catholic teaching on the Eucharist very well.
So obviously because this is such a central text in helping
us understand the Catholic teaching on the Eucharist as you
would expect. There's a lot of catechism
references which talk about it. So I just want to talk about a
few of the ones, you may not have heard before or possible
connections to this verse that maybe aren't as obvious or that
we haven't talked about in the previous day's.
So let's start with paragraph, 28, 37.
And this is a commentary on the line from the Our Father, which
says, give us this day. Day, our daily bread.
Daily, a puz loss occurs, nowhere else in the New
Testament taken in a temporal sense.
This word is, a pedagogical repetition of this stage to
confirm Us in trust without reservation taken in the
qualitative sense. It signifies, what is necessary
for life and more broadly? Every good thing sufficient for
substance taken. Literally Apu is yours is super
essential. It refers directly to the bread
of life. The body of Christ, the medicine
of immortality, without which we have no life within us.
So, that's a really interesting one that in, if you look at
where the, Our father is given by Jesus, the word that's used
for, that's translated. Daily is epic, use EOS in Greek,
and there's some discussion about what that word means.
And one of the legitimate connections, it's been made,
because it basically means it's super abundant bread.
It could be a reference to the Eucharist and so that paragraph
links it here to John chapter 6. Where it says, without if you do
not eat the Flesh of the son of man, you do not have any life in
you. So that's an Interesting one
paragraph, 14 06. This is a summary of the
teaching on the Eucharist. Jesus said, I am the living
bread that came down from heaven.
If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.
He who eats my flesh and drinks, my blood has eternal life and
abides in me and I in him, and that's the entire paragraph.
It's just a, a quote from John, chapter 6, and the church sees
that, as a great way of summarizing the Catholic
teaching on the Eucharist, Paragraph. 15 24 is about via
tecum, which is a special kind of Eucharist that's given to
people just before they die. So that paragraph says, in
addition to the anointing of the sick, the Church offers those
who are about to leave this life.
The Eucharist is via tucum communion in the body and blood
of Christ received at this moment of passing over to the
father, has a particular significance and importance.
It is the seed of eternal life and the power of Resurrection.
According to the words of the Lord, he who eats my flesh and
drinks, my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at
the last day, the sacrament of Christ once did and now risen,
the Eucharist is here the sacrament of passing over from
Death to life from this world to the father.
So the church sees the most appropriate thing you can do,
just before someone passes away, is to give them the Eucharist,
so that they have eternal life as Jesus says here, and can be
raised up at the last day, paragraph 787 talks about that
phrase. In John, chapter 6 about, he
lives in me and I in him. Jesus spoke of a still more
intimate communion between him and those.
Who would follow him abide in me and I in you, I am the vine.
You are the branches. Is, and he proclaimed a
mysterious and real communion between his own body and hours?
He who eats my flesh and drinks. My blood abides in me, and I in
him, And then in paragraph, 1391 will finish with this one.
This talks about what community taking communion actually does
for us in our life. Holy Communion augments our
Union with Christ. The principal fruit of receiving
the Eucharist in, Holy Communion is an intimate Union with Christ
Jesus. Indeed the Lord said he who eats
my flesh and drinks. My blood abides in me and I in
him life, in Christ has its foundation in the Eucharistic
banquet as the living. Father sent me and I live
because of the father so he who eats me will live because of me.
So a whole lot of really interesting stuff there and
there's some more paragraph references.
I'll include all of those in the show notes.
Thanks for listening. I hope you learned something new
about this. Really pivotal passage in John.
Chapter 6, please continue to share this podcast around, keep
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this very spot in John, chapter 6.