John 6:51-58 © Jerusalem Bible
My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink
Jesus said to the crowd:
‘I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.
Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever;
and the bread that I shall give is my flesh,
for the life of the world.’
Then the Jews started arguing with one another: ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ they said. 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 for ever.’
The Eucharist opens the gates of Paradise
If we were able to understand thoroughly all the blessings contained in holy communion, nothing more would be needed to satisfy the human heart.
Our Lord said: “Anything you ask the Father in my name, he will grant it you” (Jn 16:23b). But we should never have thought of asking God for his own Son! Yet what we should never have thought of, God has done. That which man could neither utter, nor imagine nor venture to desire, God, in his great Love, has spoken, conceived and executed.
Without the divine Eucharist there should not have been any happiness in this world, life would be unbearable. When we receive Holy Communion, we receive all our joy and gladness. God, wanting to give himself to us in the sacrament of his Love, has given us a desire so vast and great that he alone can satisfy it… Beside this beautiful sacrament we are like someone dying of thirst beside a river, yet it has only to bend its head!... Like someone who remains poor beside a treasure, it has only to hold out its hand!
If we were able to understand thoroughly all the blessings contained in Holy Communion, nothing more would be needed to satisfy the human heart.