Are we truly nourished?

Aug 16, 2024

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
Readings: Proverbs 9:1-6;
Ephesians 5:15-20;
Gospel: John 6:51-58

A friend of mine called me recently and asked, “How are you?” It’s a common question, one we hear and ask every day. You can probably guess my typical response, “I’m fine. I’m doing well. Things are really busy right now. I’m good.” She laughed and said, “Are you trying to convince me or yourself?”

I suspect I’m not the only one who has had this type of conversation. Most of us engage in these exchanges multiple times each day, offering the usual responses. We might add something about our family, health, recent activities, or plans. More often than not, these conversations focus on the circumstances of life. We may be fine and busy, getting our work done, meeting deadlines, fulfilling obligations, volunteering, and caring for our families. But there’s a difference - a vast difference - between merely doing life and having life within us.

Doing life versus having life: that’s the issue Jesus addresses in today’s Gospel. It’s a theme that has run through the last several Sundays of Gospel readings, culminating in an unspoken question: Is there life within you?

That’s a hard question, and many avoid or ignore it. They turn away rather than face it. “Fine,” “busy,” “good,” and “doing well” don't answer the question; they cover it up. The question pushes us to recognise the hunger within us and the life Jesus wants to give us.

Remember when the 5,000 hungry people were fed with five loaves and two fish? They thought it was about loaves and fish, but it was really about life and its source. Two weeks ago, Jesus challenged us to consider the bread we eat: Is it perishable or does it endure to eternal life? Last week, Jesus declared Himself to be the bread of life, the living bread that came down from heaven.

Today, He says, ‘Eat Me. Drink Me.’ This is the only way we can have life within us. Jesus is clear and blunt: His flesh is true food, and His blood is true drink. Any other diet leaves us empty, hungry, and bereft of life. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” These are ominous words that challenge us to consider whether there is life within us.

Jesus speaks of more than just physical or biological life. He’s talking about a life beyond words, indescribable, yet unmistakable when experienced. We get a taste of it when we love so deeply and profoundly that everything about us seems to die, yet we become more fully alive than ever before. Sometimes, everything aligns perfectly, and all feels right with the world - not because we got our way, but because we felt part of something larger, more beautiful, and more holy than anything we could have achieved. We were tasting life. There are moments when time stands still, and we wish they would never end. In those moments, we are in the flow, the wonder, and the unity of life, and it tastes good.

Many of us spend considerable time and energy in prayer, trying to create and possess the life we want. Despite our best efforts, we sometimes live less than fully alive. The outside and inside of who we are may not match. We ask ourselves, “What am I doing with my life?” We wonder if this is all there will ever be. Is this as good as it gets? We lament over what has become of us and our lives. Nothing seems to satisfy. We despair at what is and we think of what will be. Despite having family and friends, we may feel we belong nowhere.

These questions and feelings aren’t judgments but diagnoses. They are symptoms of a lack of life within us. We are dying from the inside out. However, there is treatment for our condition and food for our hunger. Life in Christ, not death in the wilderness, is our destiny. The flesh and blood of Christ are the medicine that saves - what St Ignatius called “the medicine of immortality.” One dose isn’t enough; we need a steady diet of this sacred medicine, this holy food.

Jesus is our medicine and health. He is our life and the means to the life for which we most deeply hunger. We don’t work for the life we want; we eat the life we want. Wherever human hunger and the flesh and blood of Christ meet, there is life.

In consuming Christ’s flesh and blood, He lives in us, and we live in Him. We partake in His life, His love, His mercy, His forgiveness, His way of being and seeing, His compassion, His presence, and His relationship with the Father. We eat and drink our way to life. So, leave nothing behind. Push nothing aside. Clean your plate!