Prov 9:1-6; Eph 5:15-20; Jn
6:51-58
The desire of man to feel and experience God
is as old as man himself. Only a few individuals had that opportunity. Moses
met God on mount Horeb. Then people saw that God was within him. The prophets
encountered God, and people experienced the presence God.
The saints saw God,
and lived in his Presence. Meeting God requires a total
transformation; and transformation is a painful process.
The caterpillar becomes the butterfly, and it is a
story of transformation. It is a process in which, a being that operates on
two-dimensional surfaces—the caterpillar—begins to create a cocoon around
itself in response to some internal prompting. Over time the caterpillar begins
to dissolve itself completely into green gooey stuff which slowly begins to
reform itself into a completely new being—the Butterfly–that can now fly
through three-dimensional space.
There is much scientific research into this
process, which has been used to map and guide an internal experience of psychic
transformation. During the phase of deepest dissolution within the cocoon,
there are imaginable cells, which hold the beginnings of the new form.
Initially there are not enough of them to precipitate the change and they are
destroyed. Eventually, however, enough of these new cells emerge to move the
transformational process along to the formation of the butterfly.
While this story of a biological process provides a
wonderful metaphor for how change is often experienced intra-psychically, to
extrapolate it to a collective process or one that is physically experienced
brings up difficult questions of how such a dissolving and reforming would be
experienced at a world level.
In today's passage we hear Jesus speaking to his
listeners about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. It seems to be a
difficult passage for us to understand. These ideas would be quite normal for
those brought up in the background of ancient sacrifice. The sacrificial
animal was very seldom burned entirely. Although the whole animal was offered
to God, part of the flesh was given to the priest. At the feast set with this
flesh, God himself was beheld to be a guest. It was beheld that God entered
into the flesh and so when the worshipper ate it he was literally eating
God. When people rose from such a feast they went out, as they
believed, literally god filled.
Further, in that ancient world the one live form of
religion was to be found in the Mystery Religions. Some of the prayers and
sayings of the mystery religions are very beautiful. In the mysteries of Mithra the
initiate said, "Abide with my soul; leave me not, that I may be initiated and
that the Holy Spirit may dwell within me.
We must remember that those ancient people knew
all about the striving, the longing, the dreaming for identity with their
god and bliss of taking him into themselves.
In this process of striving to identify themselves
with their God some people went to the extreme of declaring themselves gods.
One of the examples is that of Philip II of Macedonia.
In the Greek world, the first leader who accorded
himself divine honours was Philip of Macedonia. Greeks had set kingship
aside, and who had extensive economic and military ties, though largely
antagonistic, with Achaemenid of Persi, where kings were divine. At his
wedding to his sixth wife, Philip's enthroned image was carried in procession
among the Olympian god. "his example became a custom, passing
to the Macedonian kings who were later worshipped in Greek Asia, from them
to Julius Caesar, and so to the emperors of Rome”. Such Hellenistic
state leaders might be raised to a status equal to the gods before death.
As against these kings who were human beings,
but trying to assume divinity; in Jesus we see God taking human life upon him,
facing human situation, struggling with our human problems battling with our
human temptations, working out our human redemption. So Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life. “Unless you eat the flesh of
the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my
flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the
last day."
Following this demand St Paul advises during today's Second Reading, "Brothers and sisters
be careful how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of
the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what
the will of the Lord is." Knowing the will of the Lord and applying it are
two different things. It is no different than words without actions. Those who
believe in Christ must apply the love of Christ towards God and others through
their actions.
The result of our receiving the body of
Jesus should reflect in our actions. When Jesus comes to us, our actions
should be that of Jesus, our thoughts should be that of Jesus, our words
must be that of Jesus.
May the body and blood Jesus transform us.
Satish