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 this ministry in your prayers and if you believe it's a Ministry worth supporting, please consider becoming a
financial supporter. And there's details for that in the show notes and there's heaps of information there about all the awesome Benefits. You can get if you do decide to become a monthly Giver, thank you so much again for listening and please tune in again tomorrow as we continue from this very spot in John, chapter 6.