THE SACRAMENT OF THE ETERNAL WORD

SATURDAY, Third Week of Eastertide

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP

Acts 9:31-42; Ps 116:12-17; Jn 6:60-69

Theme: The Sacrament of the Eternal Word

The doctrine of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ is part of the core mysteries of the Incarnation of the Eternal Word of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. Our Lord presented the teaching authoritatively and demanded faith in the divinity of his word and person. As we reflected yesterday, one who refuses to accept the divinity of the Son of Man would surely refuse to accept the teaching of our Lord on his Body and Blood. Hence, he corrected the Jews when they compared him to Moses and the manna he fed their ancestors in the wilderness. Moses fed their ancestors with manna through the wilderness. They referred to the story and compared it to the miracle of feeding the five thousand with five loaves and two fish. They wanted Jesus to make the feeding recurrent. The Lord clarified to them that it was not Moses but God the Father who fed their ancestors in the wilderness. He also corrected them on the origin of the manna; the manna was not from heaven as such, but the real bread from heaven was the word of God that provided the manna for them. Thus, he cleared them on the sacramental nature of the manna. Since the manna is a sacrament, one who ate the manna needed to believe in the word of God to benefit ultimately from the eating; their ancestors’ eating of the manna in the wilderness was not of spiritual benefit to them because they failed to believe in the word of God that provided the manna. 

Subsequently, the Son of Man is superior to Moses. He offers another Sacrament that is far richer and divinely rooted than the manna for the salvation of his followers. The Son of Man is not a steward in the House of God but a Son in the House. So, he has more authority than Moses had as a steward. He has the power to free slaves in the House of God. The Son of God who became the Son of Man had the power to establish his Body and Blood as a Sacrament of our salvation by the will of the Father. These formed the core of the Lord’s teaching on his Body and Blood. Because the teaching follows from his divinity and is in accord with his redemptive mission in obedience to his Father, a rejection of the teaching is a rejection of God the Father’s will. It is also a rejection of salvation that the Father has willed for us. His words addressed the amazement of the crowd and summarised the central issue. “Does this upset you? What if you should see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before? ‘It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” To see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before is a reference to the divine nature on which he based his teaching. To refuse the divinity of the Son of Man is to reject the doctrine of the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. 

The Church is essentially the gathering of those who believe in the divinity of the Son of Man and the divine presence in the Eucharist. By believing in the divinity of the Son of God, we receive the Holy Spirit of adoption. The eating of the Sacrament is a ritual that prepares and enables us to contemplate his word and the mystery of his incarnation, life, death, and resurrection for our salvation. The Eternal Word assumed human nature in obedience to his Father’s will for our salvation. Thus, his human nature is dedicated to our salvation. This meaning is the core of the Sacrament; the celebration and eating of the Sacrament is an occasion to enter into the Paschal mystery of our Lord and become one with him. By eating this spiritual food, we are gradually transformed into what we eat. It is with this faith in the abiding presence of the Lord in his Church through the Sacrament and the ministers that the faithful invited Peter to Jaffa in their time of need. The purpose of the Sacrament is for the Lord to abide within each of his members and with his Church on earth.  

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, a deep faith and reverence of your body and blood, that we may constantly feel in our lives the effects of your redemption and possess the eternal life you have purchased for us. 

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