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...