Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life

“FLESH” has to do with the incarnate life of Jesus. He, the divine Word, became flesh, a human being in its weakness and mortality. “Blood” has to do with His very real death. To be eaten and to be drunk means that the flesh is to be broken and the blood is to be spilled. Jesus now speaks of the separation of His flesh and blood in a violent death as the moment of total giving of Himself. Jesus tells of the inevitability of His death on the cross.

Later, the believers will have to ask: How can we partake of Jesus’ flesh and blood? The evangelist’s insinuation of the Eucharistic language in Jesus’ discourse on the bread of life provides an answer: One encounters the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharistic celebration.

Gospel • JOHN 6:52-59

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His Flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “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. Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood remains in Me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent Me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on Me will have life because of Me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” These things He said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.