The Body and Blood

In the Second Reading, St. Paul St. Paul teaches that the Eucharist is not only communion with the Lord Jesus Christ and necessary for salvation, but it is also the means of communion with the Church that is the Body of Christ.  Communion with Christ in receiving the Eucharist is exclusively unique, and one cannot compare it with any other form of communion/fellowship.  Our word “communion” comes from this passage of St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Christians, and defines us as one with the Lord Jesus Christ by receiving Him Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.  St. John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople (martyred c. 403 AD), made this point concerning these verses when he wrote: “What in fact is the bread?  The Body of Christ.  What do they become who receive communion?  The Body of Christ” (Homilies on 1 Corinthians, 24).

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Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2014; revised 2023 Agape Bible Study; used with permission

The Living Bread and Eternal Salvation

INTRODUCTION

The Gospel Reading is from the “Bread of Life Discourse” Jesus gave after the miracle feeding of the five thousand and just before the second Passover and Unleavened Bread festivals of His ministry.  Jesus’ message to the Jewish crowd in the first century AD and us is explicit: consuming His Body and Blood is necessary for eternal salvation.  In the discourse, Jesus identifies His flesh as the “Bread of Life.”  The offering of Christ’s flesh in sacrifice for the life of the world connects the Incarnation, “the Word made flesh” (Jn 1:14) and the peace/communion sacrifice of the Old Covenant Toda (“thanksgiving” in Hebrew) to the New Covenant communion sacrifice we call the Eucharist (from the Greek word for “thanksgiving”).  The early Church recognized the words Jesus spoke to the crowd in John 5:51 as a Eucharistic formula.  Both the Old Latin and the Syriac liturgies still contain this verse in their Eucharistic prayers: This bread which I shall give is my body for the life of the world.

THE VERBS FOR “TO EAT”

It is interesting to note the different verbs for “to eat” which Jesus uses in the discourse.  In the earlier part of Jesus’ address (verses 49-53), He uses the usual Greek verbs for humans eating or consuming food = phago/phagos.  He continues using the normal word for “eat” until, becoming frustrated with the people’s lack of understanding.  He then increases the intensity of His words (beginning in verse 54), and He abruptly changes the verb.  When Jesus speaks about Himself in verses 54, 56, 57, and 58, He uses the verb whose Greek root trogo means to “chew or gnaw.”  Greek literature uses this word to describe the feeding of animals such as mules, pigs, and cattle.  It was not used in the 1^st century to describe the eating habits of people.  In the Bread of Life Discourse in John Chapter 6, Jesus uses this verb four times in the second half of the discourse.  It appears five times in the Fourth Gospel (the fifth time is in Jn 13:18), and in every case, it appears in connection with Christ.  Jesus’ use of the verb trogo marks a change of emphasis from ordinary eating to the necessity of faith in the consumption of the Eucharist.  The graphic and almost crude connotation of this verb adds even greater force to the repetition of Jesus’ words.  He demands that we express our faith by eating in a real and physical way His Body and by consuming in a real and physical way His Blood in the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist.

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Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2014; revised 2023 Agape Bible Study; used with permission