Sunday Introduction

Sunday 04 June

Corpus Christi (Year A)

A Reflection by Dom Henry Wansbrough OSB

This is the final section of Jesus’ great discourse in the gospel of John on the Eucharist, delivered in the synagogue at Capernaum. It is in the form of a synagogue-sermon, commenting in turn on the phrases of Psalm 78, ‘He gave them bread – from heaven – to eat’.

Jesus explains that these words are truly fulfilled not by Moses’ historic gift of manna in the desert, but by the Father’s continuous and repeated gift of Eucharistic bread. The discourse has the same pattern as the Mass, instruction followed by eating. The first two sections of the discourse were about God’s gift of revelation in Christ, which is accepted and assimilated by belief in the teaching of Jesus. Now we come to the final section on God’s gift of Christ as food.

Particularly striking are two points. Firstly, the stress on eating: the word used for ‘eat my flesh’ is full of the reality of eating; it really means ‘chew’, and designates the sacramental eating as a real assimilation of the nourishing food. The second point is that ‘my flesh for the life of the world’ links firmly to the Last Supper: the Christ that we receive is the Christ at the very moment of his redemptive act of self-offering, an act which continues throughout time and into eternity.