Eucharist - Is It Cannibalism? Part 2.
Last
week we began a look at how, in the Gospel of John, chapter 6, some people
objected to Jesus’ teaching of giving His Body and Blood by exclaiming, “How
can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (Jn 6:52). The cannibalism accusation.
Yet
we also noted that they clearly understood that Jesus was speaking of something
real and tangible, not merely symbolic nor purely spiritual.
Today
we want to examine further the three points Jesus makes in John 6:27.
First,
Jesus is not talking about “food which perishes” – the organic physical stuff
of this mortal life. As to the cannibalism claim, that pertains to the physical
human body of this present mortal life. But Jesus says He’s not talking about
“food” that “perishes.” That’s not it at all.
In
fact, Jesus says that one should strive for the “food which endures to eternal
life.” What’s that? It’s a food that doesn’t die, that lasts eternally, and it
gives that same eternal life to the one who consumes it. Jesus says it even
“gives life to the world” (Jn 6: 33). What substance of this present life, can
do that? None! Everything in this mortal life perishes. So that’s not it at
all.
So
what is it Jesus is talking about? What does He mean by “eternal life” and
“life to the world”? He tells us clearly: it is the resurrection of human life
after earthly death; it is not really dying but instead really living forever
(John 6:39, 40, 44, 47, 50, 51, 54, 57, 58). It is living in God’s eternity,
abiding in the Father and the Son, sharing in Their eternal life (John 6:56-57).
Secondly,
in John 6:27 Jesus says that the food He is speaking of is food which “the Son
of Man will give.” (Three times in this discourse Jesus refers to Himself as
the “Son of Man,” 6:27, 53, 62.) This image comes from the book of Daniel who
sees “one like a Son of Man” being presented to the “Ancient of Days” and given
“dominion and glory and kingdom” over all peoples (Dan 7:13-14), one for “the
saints of the Most High” to possess forever (Dan 7:18). This King is also an
“anointed one” (Dan 9:26), the Messiah. This “Son of Man” is no mere earthly
man. He comes “with the clouds of heaven” and is exalted to God’s throne (Dan7:13), Divine.
It
is this “Son of Man,” Jesus says, who not only gives the food of eternal life
(John 6:27), but this food is, in fact, “the flesh of the Son of Man” and “his
blood” (Jn 6:53-54). So to be clear: He is not speaking of cannibalizing the
earthly, physical flesh of Jesus. He is speaking of the “flesh” and “blood” of
the exalted heavenly Son of Man as the food of eternal life.
The
third and final point of John 6:27 is that “on Him” – the Son of Man – “God the
Father set His seal.” What is a seal? In olden times it was an imprint in wax;
more recently it has been placing a rubber stamp on an ink pad and then
pressing the stamp onto paper where the exact same image from the stamp is
transferred to the paper. Hebrews 1:3 says the Son of God “reflects the glory
of God and bears the very stamp of His nature,” or, “is the refulgence of
[God’s] glory, the very imprint of His being.” Jesus is the exact imprint of
God’s being, shares in God’s nature. Here in this discourse of John 6, Jesus
speaks of Himself as having come “down from Heaven” (Jn 6:38), of being sent from God the Father (Jn6:39, 44), and, being from God, He “has seen the Father” (Jn 6:46). Immediately
all hearing this will recall that God has said that no man can “see My face”
and live (Ex 33:20). The Son of Man, however, is no mere man.
The flesh of the Son of Man (Jn 6:53), Messiah and King, God from God, now resurrected and having ascended into Heaven, now being eternal life – this is no mere earthly, mortal flesh.
Dibby Allan Green
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church is located in California City, CA. Visit our website at ollcalcity.org.
Dibby Allan Green has a BA in Religious Studies (Westmont College, 1978) and MA in Theology (Augustine Institute, 2019), is a lay Catholic hermit, and a parishioner of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish.