BREAD OF HEAVEN

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON AUGUST 20, 2006

John 6:58 "Whoever eats this bread will live forever."

Today we are coming to the end of Jesus' great discourse in John 6. We move to the reality of what Jesus was saying about the Eucharist. Firstly he says these words: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you."

What sounds like cannibalism actually is in fact a great promise - a promise by our Lord that all of us who celebrate the Eucharist not only "do this in memory of me", but by doing that receive the very life of Jesus. The word 'flesh' is quite specific and has several connotations. It led to the accusation made of the first Christians that they were cannibals who ate the flesh of their founder and leader, Jesus.

Two thousand years later these amazing words of our Lord remind us that the Eucharist is no simple fellowship meal. Otherwise if it were just a fellowship meal we would indeed be cannibals! No - here we come into the presence of Christ, and receive his very life through the sacrament, his real presence.

Secondly Jesus declares the purpose of it all: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day." Eternal life - this is the gift that devolves from Holy Communion. And it must be so - because this Jesus, whose flesh and blood we receive in Communion, is in heaven having triumphed over death. Therefore when we receive his body and blood in Holy Communion - then we are partaking of a heavenly gift, his heavenly reality. And so the Eucharist is often called the bread of heaven, and is a window in to that glorious eternal life promised to us at the end of our life and the end of time.

Thirdly he says: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. He who eats me will live because of me." Here it is again, eating Jesus! No wonder they were accused of being cannibals. One of the earliest Christian martyrs was St. Justin in the second century in Rome. Called to defend the accusation that the Christians were indeed cannibals, he wrote a long dissertation called his First Apology. In this First Apology he says these words: “We come together to celebrate the Eucharist. No one is allowed to partake except those who believe as true the things which we teach, and who have been baptized for the remission of sins, and rebirth; and who live as Christ Commanded. We do not receive this food as ordinary bread and as ordinary drink. We are taught that the food over which the Prayer of Thanksgiving, the word received from Christ, has been said is the flesh and blood of this Jesus, who became flesh.”

This was his defense in the second century. And ever since it is unthinkable that Christians would not gather on the day of Resurrection to celebrate the Eucharist and to receive this Holy Sacrament.

This bread is the foundation and life of the church, not the ecclesiastical structure. In every age this bread has sustained the people of God. Not just as the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ of himself; not just as the promise of Jesus that "who ever eats this bread will live forever" - but because the Eucharist is both communion and sacrifice. On the one hand we offer it to God, On the other hand we receive from him the bread of Heaven.

Even though this is clearly stated, it still begs the question: Why did Jesus command us to take and eat this? It is because Jesus knew we are human. As we seek to follow God's holy word, all of us are subject to error, limitations and our own interpretations. What we see, or hear, or feel are subject to our own thoughts and failings, which muddy the clear water of God's word. Those whom we listen to, parents, teachers, and clergy are also prone to their limitations, not least in example of word and deed.

Jesus knew all this. So he left us a sacrament that goes deeper than our social, cultural and political contents. Deeper than our own personal desires, dreams and conclusions. A sacrament that we receive within a physical reality, by eating and drinking. Think for a moment of this simple act of eating and drinking.

However we may be mislead, deceived or manipulated by others, this simple act of Holy Communion can not be affected. You receive today the body and blood of Christ - and no one can take that from you. When we are old and lose sight or hearing, perhaps can not even remember the words of the Lord's Prayer, this simple yet profound act of Holy Communion will remain almost to the very end.

Reflect upon its simplicity. We can receive Communion unprepared or unworthy, full of faith or with questions. The context or the minister can be a distraction. But Communion requires no special intelligence or perception - just a minimum of movement. For our body does most of the work. And there is no mediator, just you and Christ himself.

None of this is particularly difficult or shocking. Only the realization that God gives himself so fully, so perfectly, so directly, so lovingly to you and me.

And in turn we receive from him forgiveness, healing, redemption, salvation and life everlasting.

Jesus said: "Anyone who eats this bread will live forever."