When I got this new assignment, a Nativity Parishioner said to me, “Oh, you watch out, Father. You watch out. There’s a lot of good cooks down there and you’re gonna get fat!”
I thought of that comment again when I read this first reading about Wisdom spreading the table and inviting us in to eat her food and drink her wine. Despite the risk of getting fat, how could I not say “yes” to your invitations to feed me? How could we not say “yes” to God when He offers to feed us?
But sadly, we often do say “no” to God, we often make excuses for why we can’t make it to Mass, we say “no” to eating at this table. That was me for a while too. For about five years, during and after college, I regularly said “No. No, I don’t want to go to Mass. No, I don't see the value in the Eucharist.”
I grew up Catholic, I went to Mass every Sunday, fishing trips and opening season of shotgun were not excuses even, we still found a church, we still made time. When I got to college, you know, I got really wise by Sophomore year. “Did it even matter if the Bread and Wine became the Body and Blood? Jesus loves me no matter what I do, whether I go or not.” That was what I thought.
So maybe I would go, maybe not, more often than not I wouldn’t go to Catholic Mass, I’d go to a Protestant Worship Service because that was what my girlfriend preferred. It didn’t matter, True Presence or just a symbol, no relevance to me.
Then after college in 2006, my dad invited me to a Catholic Men’s Conference. I said “No.” Then in 2007, he invited me again, and I thought to myself, “he is going to keep inviting me until I say yes.” So I reluctantly said “Yes.”
There at that Conference in Cedar Rapids, the keynote speaker talked about the Eucharist straight from scripture, using this particular Gospel we just heard, that I had heard at least five times growing up, if not more, but it had never resonated with me, but the speaker broke it down for us in a way that I had never heard.
Since I don’t want to assume you’ve already heard this, I’d like to explain it with the help of a handout, which you can find in your pews, those handouts are for you to take home. So take a look at that, does everyone have one?
Here is what is really interesting is that in this passage, and this is highlighted in red, is that Jesus actually changes His words, He changes the tone to make it even stronger and impossible to think about this symbolically.
Remember that this passage started with the Jews “quarreling” or now fighting amongst themselves, so, as they are getting into fights about this teaching, it would have been easy for Jesus to soften His teaching, to say this was only symbolic or something easier, but He didn’t, He made it more challenging.
So the first several times the word “eat” is used, before verse 53, it is the common, socially acceptable use, the Greek word, phago.
But from 54 on, after the Jews begin to fight, Jesus changes the verb and says, you must trogo the flesh of the Son of Man. In the dictionary, phago is just simple eating, I imagine it is polite, like eating with a fork and a spoon. But this word trogo is defined as to gnaw, crunch or chew.
When we hear the word “gnaw” it really makes us think about eating meat off the bone, doesn't it? I think of eating a giant turkey leg at the Iowa State Fair, probably my biggest regret from the other day was not having one of those.
Anyway, trogo was the word that Jesus began to use to intensify His teaching and He did it to emphasize the reality of physically consuming the Bread of Life that He was promising to give, His real flesh for the life of the world.
Furthermore, Jesus had at least two options for the word “flesh”, but He used the Greek word sarx which could mean nothing other than the physical corporeal reality of His very body, as opposed to using the word soma, which could be interpreted symbolically.
Jesus wanted to be very clear that the Eucharist was not “just a symbol,” it is His true flesh and true blood, given to us mystically as only God could. Recall that God had done something like this previously, giving manna from Heaven for 40 years, well this was the New Manna, the new Bread from Heaven, which was even better than the original, saying “Unlike your ancestors who ate [the manna] and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
Now when I first heard this, I was shocked. It was something I had completely missed for the first twenty-five years of my life.
The belief in the real, true presence of Jesus is a distinct Catholic belief and I was so shocked because I had essentially left my Catholic faith in college, and walked away from the gift that it is to receive Him here, and have eternal life.
It’s hard to explain how much this meant to me, it was a major conversion moment in my life, just knowing this detail forced me to dive much deeper into the Catholic faith. It made me question, “what else had I been missing all of my life because I was only seeing the scriptures in English?”
And I believe this is why many people have walked away from the practice of their Catholic Faith as well, why they aren’t at Mass each week, because they never fully believed this particular teaching, the Eucharist as Jesus’ True Presence here with us, the Source and Summit of our Faith.
And now, now that I think about this even more deeply, it isn’t all about the food, that wasn’t the true meaning of our first reading, Proverbs saying how Wisdom has invited us to eat and drink, but it is only a metaphor. Listen again:
“Wisdom has built her house, (this means God has built the Church for us to gather together) …she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine, yes, she has spread her table. She… calls from the heights out over the city: "Let whoever is simple turn in here; To the one who lacks understanding, she says, Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed! (Mixing wine seems like a weird thing to say, but I do mix the water and the wine here) Forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding."”
The meal is about growing in understanding of God, growing in Wisdom, growing to know God, entering more deeply into a relationship with each other.
This is why I will say “yes” to a meal at your house or your favorite establishment around town, not because I really need to eat, it is because I want to get to know you better, and the way we do that quite often is over a meal, the food and drink is just an excuse to spend time with you, to get to know you better.
Now don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t diminish the Eucharist at all, but coming to Mass is an opportunity to be fed, first by God’s Word, and then by His True Presence, growing in understanding of God through both.
Listen again to that second reading from St. Paul, he said, “Brothers and sisters: Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise, making the most of the opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand what is the will of the Lord. (There it is again: learn about God, grow in understanding) And do not get drunk on wine, in which lies debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit…”