Solemnity of The Most Holy Body & Blood of Christ (A)
Readings: Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16; Psalm 147:12-15,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51-58
Picture: By Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash
What do butterflies and frogs have in common? One is a winged insect, flitting about from flower to flower. The other is an amphibian, hopping around ponds and streams on webbed feet. Yet we know that each of these creatures begins life with a very different appearance. A butterfly starts out looking like a worm, a frog like a fish. Then, at some point, a big change takes place. Something called metamorphosis. The lazy leaf-chewing caterpillar turns into an airborne nectar-sipping beauty. And the guppy-like water-breathing tadpole grows lungs and legs, to begin a new life on land. Both creatures undergo a radical transformation, not just in diet, but also in form. We might say that, in the process of growing up, both butterflies and frogs have to make a crossing from one way of life to another.
In contrast, we are spared such biological upheaval. A human baby is really just a tiny version of the adult. And as tumultuous as the teenage years may be––perhaps even more so for the parents than for their children––no real metamorphosis takes place. Even so, isn’t there another kind of crossing we need to undertake? One that’s not so much biological as it is spiritual? Isn’t this what our scriptures are inviting us to ponder today? To better see this, it helps to consider what the first reading and the gospel have in common. In each, we find someone giving a speech. First Moses, and then Jesus. And we need to pay attention not just to the content of the speech, but also especially to its context.
In the first reading, Moses addresses the people at a very specific point in their journey. They have recently completed a forty-year crossing of the wilderness. And now, they are preparing to cross the Jordan River, in order to begin a new life in the Promised Land. But more than just a change in geographical location, these 2 crossings have a profound spiritual significance for the people. They point to an ongoing journey, a process of radical transformation, of spiritual metamorphosis. By which a bunch of nobodies are being formed into the People of God. Isn’t this what Moses is asking them to remember and not forget? How the Lord your God… brought you out of the land of Egypt… guided you through this vast and dreadful wilderness… How God humbled you, made you feel hunger… fed you with manna… Why? To make you understand that… man does not live on bread alone but… on everything that comes from the mouth of God… It was to refine their spiritual appetites. To help them learn to be nourished by the Word of God. Much like how, in order to become an adult, a leaf-chewing caterpillar must learn to drink nectar. And a tadpole must learn to breath air, so as to live a new life on land.
Similarly, in the gospel, Jesus has been making crossings. As we may recall, he had earlier crossed from Capernaum to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Where he had miraculously multiplied bread for the people to eat. Before crossing back again to Capernaum. And those he had fed also crossed the lake in search of him. Likely hoping to keep enjoying free food. But Jesus takes care to point out that both his miraculous provision of food, as well as his multiple crossings of the lake, have a deeper spiritual significance. They point to the need for human beings to undergo a radical transformation, a spiritual metamorphosis, in order to reach maturity. A crossing from slavery and idolatry, to freedom and true worship. From selfishness and sin, to love and new life in the kingdom of God. And to help us make this life-changing crossing, Jesus himself will soon make another crossing of his own. He will Pass-Over from Death on the Cross to the Resurrection on the Third Day.
Through his Sacrifice on Good Friday, and the Supper eaten with his disciples the night before, Jesus will offer his flesh and blood as true spiritual nourishment. 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… When we gather to remember and give thanks for his Sacrifice, and to be nourished at his Table, as well as when we subsequently disperse to become what we celebrate, we allow our appetites to be refined, and our lives to be transformed. So that together we may grow to true maturity. To become who we are meant to be. As the second reading tells us, by partaking of the one cup and the one loaf, we are drawn into communion in and with the One Lord. We are formed into a single maturing Body of Christ.
Isn’t this the deeper spiritual significance of the feast we are celebrating with such solemnity today? Isn’t this what it means to share in the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ? To celebrate and live the great Mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist? And isn’t this something we need to bear firmly in mind and heart? Not least because we live in a society devoted to and defined by a juvenile form of consumption? Where appetites are warped by advertising, and attentions waylaid by compulsions that may appear and feel so urgent, but are actually illusory. A world that, for all its technological advancements, often finds itself still stuck in a tumultuous self-centred adolescence.
Sisters and brothers, a caterpillar is meant to become a butterfly. A tadpole must grow into a frog. What can we do to help one another to keep making that crucial crossing from adolescence to true maturity in the Lord today?
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