Daily Mass Gospel Reflection - Flesh of His Flesh

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 05.04.22 | Aux. Bishop R. Barron

[MurphsLaw]

THIRD WEEK OF EASTER

JOHN 6:35–40

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus declares that he is the bread of life
and promises eternal life to all who believe in him.

Many of the Church Fathers characterized the Eucharist as food that immortalizes those who consume it.
They understood that if Christ is really present in the Eucharistic elements,
the one who eats and drinks the Lord’s Body and Blood becomes configured to Christ in a far more than metaphorical way.
The Eucharist, they concluded, Christifies and hence eternalizes.

If the Eucharist were no more than a symbol, this kind of language would be so much nonsense.
But if the doctrine of the Real Presence is true,
then this literal eternalization of the recipient of Communion must be maintained.

But what does this transformation practically entail?
It implies that the whole of one’s life—body, psyche, emotions, spirit—becomes ordered to the eternal dimension.
The Christified person knows that his life is not finally about him but about God;
the Eucharistized person understands that her treasure is to be found above and not below.
Wealth, pleasure, power, honor, success, titles, degrees, even friendships and family connections
are all relativized as the high adventure of life with God opens up.

[MurphsLaw]

+++ Jesus said to them,
“I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger,
and he who believes in me shall never thirst.
But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.
All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me
I will not cast out.
For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will,
but the will of him who sent me;
and this is the will of him who sent me,
that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me,
but raise it up at the last day.
For this is the will of my Father,
that every one who sees the Son and believes in him
should have eternal life;
and I will raise him up at the last day.”++

[ebb tide]

The Eucharist, they concluded, Christifies and hence eternalizes.

Booby Barron fails to mention:

[27] Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord.
1st Epistle of St Paul to the Corinthians Chapter 11

In Booby's "church", he still dares to hope Hell is empty.