John 6:51-58 (NRSV)
Read John 6:51-58 on biblegateway.com
Verse 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." Verse 52The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Verse 53So Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Verse 54Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; Verse 55for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Verse 56Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Verse 57Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. Verse 58This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever."
Devotion
“Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.”
As much as we try to explain the Eucharist or to convey as precisely as we can the workings of Holy Communion, we will always fall short. How exactly does receiving the body and blood of Jesus in simple bread and wine manage to give us life? There’s no neat little way to say, we simply know and experience that it does. Rather than get caught up in two millenia worth of debate, at times it is simply enough to let the mystery be mystery and instead focus on the life that it gives us—the confidence of the presence of Christ it brings to us. We will never understand everything about communion, but we can choose to live into the life it brings rather than miss out because we were too busy trying to comprehend.
Prayer
Holy God, help us to accept mystery and to receive the life you give to us through this sacrament. Amen.