We have seen that in John's Gospel we have a reconsideration of the great steps of initiation into the mystery of Christ, first out of conversion, which of course goes on all through life as we move away from the darkness and the bondage of self-centeredness to the freedom and responsibility of unselfish love. There is no limit to the possibilities of being other-oriented, of being thoughtful, Very often this involves a sensitivity to where other people are. You know, sometimes someone is crying out for help right in front of us and we don't see it. All we see is the externals. And we know that many people who laugh loudest are crying inside.

[01:05]

And in the case of the anointing of Jesus by the anonymous woman, the point was that she noticed, she sensed that Jesus, about to die, was the poorest of the poor. And she did what she could with the ointment that she had saved. And those other fellows around, they were so preoccupied with themselves or insensitive to the situation that they did not sense the need of Jesus. For no man is so poor as the man who will die tomorrow. And so very often this other orientation, this unselfishness is in terms of sensitivity. One acquires a kind of radar that picks up the need in other people, subtle needs as well as the obvious ones, becomes more and more a thoughtful, considerate, caring person.

[02:11]

And then on baptism, this is confirmed in the process of the community. And of course, as I mentioned, baptism goes on forever. Every day we need to reflect upon the experience of baptism, even though it happened in our distant infancy, in our unconscious early years, that it becomes every day, because every day God says to us, you are my beloved child. And we need to hear those words, of course. And then comes, after baptism, of course, the great sacrament of Eucharist. The Eucharist is the central Christian sacrament. It is not just one of the seven sacraments. It is in a class all by itself. It is the supreme sacrament. All the other sacraments are like satellites revolving around the Eucharist. The sacraments are not all of equal importance, but the most important of all, by far, is the sacrament of the Eucharist, the crown of all the sacraments.

[03:23]

Baptism provides access to it, and all the other sacraments derive their meaning from their relationship to the Eucharist. Priesthood is for the Eucharist. Last anointing also goes with beaticum, the Eucharist. John's way of presenting this sacrament is unique and very significant. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, and there is no doubt that that is where it occurred, in fact. John's Gospel has a Last Supper, as I've mentioned, but there is no notice there of the Eucharist. This does not mean, of course, that John does not consider the Eucharist important. In fact, the contrary is true. He considers it so important that he will not relegate it to the Last Supper where there is no opportunity to talk about it at greater length.

[04:33]

He devotes an entire chapter, chapter 6, to the Eucharist, and we find there words which are the equivalent of the words of institution in the Synoptics. The question is, why has John taken this drastic step? I think the answer is clear. John is more concerned with the proper understanding of the Eucharist than he is with its historical location in the ministry of Jesus. In the Gospels, when there's a contest between history and theology, theology always wins. The theological meaning is far more important than historical circumstances, which is why the Jesus Seminar and others of that type are so wrongheaded. because they are looking only for the historical thing, and the evangelists are doing something altogether different.

[05:38]

They are giving us interpreted history, and interpreted history means history with its theological message, and their primary concern is the theological message. Now, there must be an historical basis, of course, grounded in history, but that is not the end of the story. His concern for the proper understanding of the Eucharist is no doubt based on the apparent tendency at the end of the first century and ever since to give to the Eucharist a magical power which supposedly works independently of the dispositions of those who receive it. Magic makes a sacrament mechanical, and it's based on superstition, and the dispositions of the one who receives are totally secondary.

[06:42]

Magic has always been a serious problem in religion. It maintains, gratefully, that divine power can be successfully invoked, and God knows we need divine power. We need the power of God. The question is how to get it. And magic says, well, if you know the right formulas, if you know the right gestures, if you know the abacadabra, A-B-C-D, abacadabra, if you know the hocus pocus, as you probably know, hocus pocus is a corruption of hocus corpus mem. This is my body. If you know these secret gestures and secret motions and the secret words, then you can force God. God is required to answer, and the name of God was considered the primary word. If you knew the secret name of God, you could force God to answer you.

[07:50]

I like to compare that to the unlisted telephone number. bishops, maybe even abbots, I don't know, have unlisted telephone numbers because God knows who, some drunk in a bar calls up the Pope, you know, calls up the abbot. Well, you gotta have some protection. So they don't list their number in the telephone book because if you know the unlisted number, you get that important person's attention. That phone rings in his bedroom and he will answer it at the middle of the night. So he doesn't give it to anybody except his close friends and people who understand that, you know, he shouldn't call at that time. And so the secret name of God, the name Yahweh, was thought to be like that. That if you use that name, God had to respond. And of course, God himself has told us that if you use the name of Jesus, he will not fail to hear it. But this is offered by God. It's not magic, it's just

[08:54]

the expression of God's love and the name that he cannot ignore. In this case, in the case of magic and superstition and the manipulation of the divinity, thou shalt not take my name in vain. That is, you shall not use my name in a magical way. In that case, of course, the priest or the sherman is the one who knows the formulas and who can perform the required ritual acts. And this gives him great power in the community. And the disposition, the religious dispositions of the minister or even the recipient is quite secondary. You recall that the church had to clarify that fact. There were a lot of things that were close to magic, especially in the good old days, when you had to know that formula.

[10:03]

Some priests got so scrupulous about saying the words. They knew that these words had power. I used to serve priests once in a while, and they could hardly get those words out. They were afraid they wouldn't say them exactly right. Some are putting it in English, seems to solve that problem. But you recall, I remember ordination, you know, the master of ceremonies, they're watching the bishop, and when they hand him the book to make lectures, he'd say, put your thumb on the pages and your forefinger on the cover, to make sure you got the contact, otherwise it won't work. I'll tell you, we got very close to that. And then Rome had to come out and say explicitly that the disposition of the minister does not invalidate the sacrament. So a sinful minister can give a valid sacrament. But the real question, of course, is what about the disposition of the recipient?

[11:04]

That's a critical area. The effect of the ritual does not depend on dispositions, but only on the mechanical and scrupulous accuracy of the ritual. Or to put it in other words, the faith of the recipient is placed in the ritual, or in the priest, and not in God, or in God's goodness and mercy. One can easily see how this would move the focus in religion away from the difficult task of personal conversion toward reliance on formulas and ritual actions, and the more the better. Magic is so attractive because it seems to give us the power of God without the painful process of personal conversion. And John wants to tell us personal conversion is absolutely necessary.

[12:09]

And there is nothing, not even the Eucharist, that can overcome that. If you're not personally disposed, working toward conversion, working toward unselfishness, then the great sacrament of unselfishness will not save you in spite of yourself, no matter how powerful it may be. Going to communion every day, on both knees if you wish, is a lot easier than living unselfishly. And because it's easier, it's a great temptation to pile up religious observances of all kinds, but not to change one's heart, not to become an unselfish person. And when that happens, of course, your life is totally out of harmony with the sacrament. The sacrament cannot overcome that obstacle.

[13:11]

In order to deal with this serious and perennial problem, John took the radical step of moving the institution of the Eucharist from chapter 13 to chapter 6, where he created a very special context for it that would militate against any magical understanding. You recall in the Middle Ages, sometimes there was the abuse of the sacrament of the Eucharist in the cathedrals. The people would run from one altar to the other, one side altar to the other, just to see the elevation. And sometimes they'd shout out, even higher, Pastor John, you know, because he didn't get up high enough above his head, probably had arthritis or something, you know. I want to see it, then no communion, just run to the next altar and see the next elevation. I tell you, it's amazing how, of course, this is because the sacrament is so powerful. But because it's so powerful, you know, relation to it can be abused all the easier.

[14:19]

Chapter 6 begins with two miracles. Very carefully chosen miracles. Not just any old miracle. the two miracles that are going to set the stage for what John wants to say. Oh, the structure of chapter 6 is meticulous and very pointed, very considered. The first miracle, John verses 1 to 15, is a multiplication of loaves and fishes. Why this miracle? Well, he wants to introduce the subject of nourishment. After all, this is going to be about the bread of life. Cornelius' miracle talks about nourishment, about food, about bread. This establishes the basic theme of God's desire to nourish and give life. John's version of this central miracle, which occurs in all four Gospels, like Matthew, has true multiplication of loaves and fishes, just in case you missed the one.

[15:25]

In John's Gospel, the story is told differently from the synoptics. It is obviously the same story, but there are significant differences which highlight John's concern. He lays special emphasis upon the disparity between the bread with which they began and the bread that resulted from the act of Jesus. John alone tells us that it was barley bread. Barley bread, bread made from barley. Now, this was the coarse, plain bread of the poor folk. They couldn't afford the better wheat bread or the semolina bread. There were many, many grains of flour, as you know. You should know it here. And barley, barley. Today, barley mostly fed the hogs. not considered fit to make bread with.

[16:27]

But he begins with the plainest of breads, the most unpromising of bread, the least nourishing of bread. And once Jesus touches it and tells them to distribute it, it becomes so precious that he not only says there were 12 baths left over, as the synoptics do, he says, and Jesus ordered them to take up every fragment much greater concern about gathering up the fragments in John's Gospel than in the synoptics. So you have this contrast, this heightened contrast between what they began with, which is really our natural life, our natural life. It looks so unpromising. But if we bring in faith and the action of Jesus, if we allow Jesus to touch it, it becomes so precious that it cannot be measured. This is a mystical insight.

[17:32]

As I said, the mystic begins to — he looked at the ordinary world like everybody else, but everything speaks of God. God shines through everything. Suddenly it becomes not only not just plain and ordinary, but precious. Everything becomes precious. And this is, of course, true of the Eucharist. And at this time, in the end of the first century, you already have Eucharistic, I mean the ritual of Eucharist already is introduced here, where Jesus, you know, distributes the bread and becomes precious, as happens at the consecration, of course. This makes it very clear that in John's Gospel, The divinity of Jesus shines through everything. His own human nature is transformed by his divinity. His own human nature becomes the primary sacrament, the sacrament of sacraments. And his human nature and body divinity in the Eucharist is the sacrament of sacraments.

[18:38]

Because it takes very ordinary things and transforms them into divinity. The most optimistic appreciation, understanding of creation. John is clearly, therefore, not opposed to sacramental religion. He is not running off somewhere away from the sacraments and away from ritual. He's not opposed to ritual, but he wants to be sure that the sacramental religion is not magical. The second lyrical is very brief, verses 16 to 24, and it is intended to put us in another context similar to the first, but different, a little more narrow context. Not only want to talk about bread and nourishment, but he wants to relate it to the great saving event of Exodus.

[19:40]

It's a miracle that suggests exodus, if you read it carefully. The disciples are tossed about by the storm. They cry out for help. Being tossed in the storm, recall the condition of the slaves in Egypt. They lived in chaos. Remember, prior to creation there was chaos, the empty and the void. And so the storm symbolizes, recalls the chaotic condition of the slaves in Egypt. They cry out for help, as did the slaves in Egypt. And Jesus appears walking on the water. Nothing in John about Peter being called out and having little faith and so forth. That is not important for John. He leaves that out. Jesus walks on the water. They see him walking on the water. They think it is a ghost. but he reassures them with the words, Ego eimi.

[20:43]

Do not be afraid. Now, this is a real challenge. Ego eimi in Greek means literally, I am. But it cannot hardly be translated that way into English. And most English translations completely miss the point, unfortunately. They say, it is I. Do not be afraid. But that does not capture the significance of the ego, a me, I am. Because he is acting now as the great I am of Exodus. I am who I am. The God of Exodus, the God who liberated the slaves. He's present again in the same capacity. And many other places in the gospel. John alone has Jesus say, I am. I am over and over again. I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the good shepherd." And then in chapter 8, before Abraham was, I am.

[21:46]

And so, in that context, it's clear that this is more than just I. It is I. The closest we can come in English to capturing the meaning of the I am is to say, I am here. I am here because the great I am in Exodus is God who is here to help his people. God who has come and is present to them. I am here. Do not be afraid." And the storm suddenly ceased and became calm. God intervened to bring peace and harmony and a new world. These words remind us, as I said, how Yahweh, whose name is I Am, rescued Israel from the turmoil and the fear and the despair of Egyptian bondage.

[22:48]

It also prepares us for the Exodus story of manna in the wilderness. And John will very cleverly bring it around to that. Because he wants to talk about bread. But he wants to talk about the special bread that is connected with Exodus. And that is the manna that came to them after they left Egypt and in the desert, the food for the journey, the manna. Because he wants to say, and we'll see, I am the true manna that came down from heaven. All of this suggests that the most basic of all religious questions is, how does one find the food that nourishes unto eternal life and final liberation? Food is nourishment. Nourishment preserves life, gives life. But in John's Gospel, the only life worth nourishing is the eternal life, union with God.

[23:54]

So how does one find the nourishment that gives us that kind of life? Many of us live a very robust human life, but in terms of the divine life, it's very weak. Some are very weak and feeble and the divine life is very strong. And the question is, how does one find nourishment for this special divine life that can inhabit a feeble, frail human body? How can we be sustained on the journey from bondage of sin and guilt and low self-esteem and all the rest to the freedom of unselfishness and peace? To answer that question, John proposes in the next section of chapter 6, verses 25 to 34, that one receives this nourishment by believing. It is very important. You recognize that in the chapter six, that every time he talks about bread, he's not yet talking about the Eucharist.

[24:58]

You have to be very careful not to jump the gun, not to go off half-cocked, you know, oh, there's bread of life, Eucharist. No, no. In the early part of chapter six, the bread is not yet Eucharist. Verse 29, Jesus replied, you know, They asked him, what is the work that God requires of us? What does God expect of us? And the answer they probably expected was, keep the Sabbath, do the fast, and all the good works of the law. No, no, Jesus said, Jesus replied, this is the work that God requires of us to believe in the one whom he has sent. Before you talk about Eucharist, you've got to talk about faith. And of course, as I mentioned, faith is not just believing that there was a Jesus and that he died and rose. Faith means that I believe that that is what I must do. A critical step is made that that is the program for my life, too.

[26:03]

I recognize that I must imitate what Jesus has done. That is the only faith that has any real meaning. And this is what God requires of us, first and foremost, that we believe in the one whom he has sent. And everywhere in the Gospel of John, it is clear that this means not just to affirm the truth of his divinity, but also to accept that model of self-giving as the ideal of one's own life and as the first consideration in all one's decisions. This is so difficult. If you don't think it's difficult, it means you haven't tried it. Simple as that. But make unselfishness the first consideration in all our decisions. The temptation, the normal thing is, you know, what's in it for me? You know. I sometimes tell a story to illustrate this about a—not far-fetched, actually.

[27:10]

Could happen. The young man comes to the monastery, very fervent, very idealistic, wants to become a saint very quickly. Can't wait like those others, you know. Going to be a novice who is seen as a saint, you know, and so forth. So he looked at the schedule and, oh, gee, let's see, recreation. This is the Benedictine Monastery, of course. Recreation at seven o'clock. Oh, no, no, no. I don't want to go down there. Those people, all those other novices, all they want to talk about is mundane things. I can't stand that. Besides, my best friend won't be there today. Ah, yes, I will go and visit the Buddha's sacrament. Go and visit the Buddha's sacrament. And I hope someone sees me. Because then he'll go back and say, no, there's a real novice. He was a real novice. He used to say in the monastery, they're hot in Geist. He had the spirit, you know.

[28:15]

You know, I'm amazed that Jesus doesn't open the door of the tabernacle. The restraint of God is unbelievable. Open the door of the tabernacle and say, what are you doing here? Get back there to recreation and break your body and pour out your blood for your contraires. Now, I'm overstating it, but you see the point. The meaning of this argument is loving others, unselfishness. Now, you should come by all means to visit me when it's appropriate, but it's not appropriate now. I am not an escape. from the difficulty of unselfish behavior and consideration of others. That never happened, of course. But it could happen. I'm afraid it has.

[29:19]

This decision to live unselfishly has endless implications. And to do this is possible only by a gift from God. by God's grace. But that gift is offered to us, offered to believers. It is in this contact that Jesus declares that he is himself the brother of life. Well, the Jews, you know, they are programmed to ask the right questions. You know, sometimes when a speaker talks to an audience, he will plant somebody in the audience to ask the right question. Oh, very good question, my friend. That's just the one I wanted to hear, you know. Well, indeed, I mean, John plants somebody among the Jews to ask the appropriate question. And the question was, why don't you do something significant? Why don't you do something spectacular? For example, God gave our fathers manna in the desert. Aha, just what I wanted you to say.

[30:23]

Why don't you do something like our fathers did? Like manna in the desert. Oh, yes, well. Jesus says in verse 35, I am the blood of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. I am the manna. I am the true manna. That was only a prefiguring of the true manna. I came down from heaven. The eternal word made flesh. to bring nourishment for the journey. But notice here, not yet Eucharist. Whoever comes to me and whoever believes in me and Raymond Brown points out that come to me and believe in me has the same meaning. It means whoever accepts me as the model for his life

[31:26]

It is important to note that when Jesus identifies himself as the blood of life, he is not yet referring to the Eucharist. The operative word in this statement is believe. And the object of believing is Jesus as the one sent from the Father, the source of all life, so that through faith one may receive true life from the Father. But what Jesus brings us from the Father is the message of the Father's love for us. And then he embodies and exemplifies the love in his own self-giving. And by doing so, he challenges us to love in the same way. We don't see that connection between seeing him give his life and recognizing that means we too must give our life, then we have no faith. not in John's Gospel. It is my Father's will, he says in verse 40, it is my Father's will that everyone who sees the Son sees Jesus and has faith in Him should have eternal life.

[32:44]

Notice how much he is emphasizing believing. Why? Because we will see that when he finally comes to the Eucharist explicitly He's going to say, the implication is very clear, that only a believing reception of the sacrament is fruitful. Only a believing reception, that is a reception of someone who is trying to live unselfishly, who understands that this is what Jesus came to call us to do, and to tell us that unselfishness is the only true life, ultimately. The focus here, then, is upon the witnessing and the teaching of Jesus. His teaching about the goodness of God and the availability of true life from the Father.

[33:47]

Verse 45 is explicit. It is written in the prophets They will all be taught by God. Everyone who has listened to the Father and learned from Him comes to me. Well, I, of course, bring the message from the Father. And those who hear that message will automatically become part of me. They will become like me. Someone has said that Imitating Christ doesn't mean looking at Christ and trying to, you know, do what he does, watch his gestures and so forth. It's looking at Christ and seeing that he is looking at the Father. It is seeing God as Jesus saw God, as incredibly loving Father. And the more we see the goodness of God, the more we become like Jesus. the more we are able to become like Jesus, the Beloved Son, the Beloved Child.

[34:51]

And as we know the goodness of the Father and hear him say, You are my Beloved Child, then we have the strength to be unselfish. Otherwise it's impossible. So we listen to that, we turn our petals to that Son, the Son of the Father's love, and receive energy from that. And then we can be like Jesus and give our goodness and love to others. You shall be taught by God. Therefore, before Jesus is bread of life as Eucharist, he is bread of life as wisdom or truth. He is the bread of life as teaching. In fact, Raymond Brown points out that this first half of Chapter 6 very much might be influenced by the structure of the Eucharist as a ritual. And in the first half of the Eucharist, in service of the Word, you have teaching, you have instruction, you have reading from Scripture, you have a homily, you have instruction that's supposed to stir up your faith.

[36:04]

And the blood of life, first of all, is the blood of the Word, the Word that nourishes, nourishes faith. And then you're prepared for the Eucharist. Then you're prepared to enter into the canon, into the Eucharistic prayer. The purpose of the Word is not unrelated, of course. And it's meant to renew our faith, make our faith more personal. This is perfectly in harmony with the Old Testament. where wisdom is called food of life, food for life. As we read, for example, in the book of Proverbs, Lady Wisdom says, come, eat of my bread, drink of the wine I have mixed. Wisdom 9.5. Lady Wisdom is not talking about some special dinner.

[37:06]

That's not to be taken literally. Lady Wisdom is offering wisdom but under the metaphor of bread and wine, food for life, nourishment. And then Isaiah, wonderful text in Isaiah, chapter 55, verses 10 and 11. As rain and snow come down from heaven, making the earth bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, So shall my world be that goes forth from my mouth." Wonderful agricultural analogy. They sowed the seed and only when the moisture came down, when the rain from heaven, did they see that the seed could sprout. And that provided seed for the next planting and also food for the eater. If the rains don't come, you starve to death. Famine was very real in the ancient Near East.

[38:07]

So when the rains came, it meant food, nourishment. So shall my word be. The word of God, the revelation of God, the truth that God gives us is food for our true life, our spiritual life. So it's talking about the teaching of Jesus, which is received in faith. And the teaching is essentially unselfish behavior, which I accept in faith. It is hard to believe that unselfishness really works. It is not a promising thing to do. And all the philosophy of our secular world tells us, take care of yourself, buddy. You know, numero uno comes first, number one. Take care of yourself. Climb up that ladder and somebody come up behind you, step on their fingers. You know, this is warfare.

[39:09]

Competition. Everything is competition. Now, try to be nice about it, but cut them off. Selfish. Everybody for himself, ultimately. We try to cover it up with, you know, social behavior and so forth. Instead of using an axe, we use a scalpel. It's pretty much the same effect. Now, there's not everywhere, but there's a lot of that out there in the jungle. Selfishness doesn't... Unselfishness doesn't look like it's going to work. Unselfishness looks very unpromising, especially for oneself. You think, if everybody else first, who's going to take care of me? Well, you know, we feel like Humpty Dumpty. sat on the wall, and he fell down and broke into pieces. And we're afraid of breaking into pieces. And when you live unselfishly, you break into pieces for the sake of others.

[40:11]

Well, God has the power to gather Humpty Dumpty up and put them back together. It's called resurrection. So, first of all, in this chapter in the Eucharist, it's about believing in the challenge of God to live unselfishly. This teaching is embraced in faith, which is nourishment for eternal life. This kind of effective faith is a precondition for the fruitful reception of the Eucharist. And so, John will discuss the Eucharist only after having made the need for living faith crystal clear. which he does then finally in verse 51. John now for the first time in this chapter explicitly declares, or Jesus declares, that he is the blood of life as flesh and blood. Verse 51, the blood of life which I shall give is my own flesh given for the life of the world.

[41:18]

my own flesh and blood will become the embodiment, the embodiment of the unselfishness which I have just told you you must accept, you must live. Then you'll understand that my flesh and blood embody the teaching, the meaning of unselfishness. It is body broken and blood poured out. not just body present and blood present. That's why the Second Vatican Council was so clear about emphasizing that only in the action of the Eucharist is the sacrament perfectly present, because only there is the blood broken, the body broken, and the blood poured out. So the reservation of the sacrament is very important, but it's not a perfect representation of the sacrament because it does not include the breaking and the pouring out. And you might be confused and thinking that, you know, God has come to be with us.

[42:25]

God has come to die for us, not just to be with us. He's not just Immanuel. And so in the Eucharist itself you have the only perfect plural manifestation of the sacrament. The blood of life which I shall give is my own flesh, given for the life of the world. In very truth I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. In this context it is clear that you have eternal life by eating the flesh and drinking the blood only to the extent that your life corresponds in some degree to the meaning of the body broken and the blood poured out. Now we're a frail human being, nobody can be perfectly unselfish, but we have to be at least striving to be unselfish and recognizing that that is the ideal.

[43:26]

Then it goes even farther, in verse 56 and 57, a much more daring statement whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me and I in him. This is language for mystics. Dwells in me and I in him. As the living Father sent me, no one is more alive or living than the Father, the ultimate of life. As the living Father sent me and I live, because of the Father. I live with the life of the Father shared with me. So, whoever eats me will live because of me." He's saying, if you receive this sacrament and if your life, you know, is trying to correspond to the meaning of this sacrament, you will begin to share in the very life that came from the Father and is now offered

[44:36]

by me to you, the life by which I live, the divine life. Thus the receiving of the Eucharist with deep and living faith can lead to an ever greater awareness of the Father's love, an ever greater generosity toward others, and an ever more intimate mystical union with Jesus. The reaction of the disciples, verse 60 to 71, they said, this is a hard say. Kleros Logos. You know what sclerosis is? Arteriosclerosis? Harming of the arteries. Kleros Logos. This is a hard saying, and who can accept it? Now, oh, I wish they had been a little more explicit about what this, what this is, what this saying is.

[45:38]

Now, we have all assumed for years that this is the teaching of the real presence of Jesus. This is true to my body, true to my blood. And this is a hard saying. And only we Catholics are required to believe this. The Protestants get away without having to believe it. But we Catholics, we do the hard things, you know. I don't think that's what it is. It's very doubtful that the hard saying is the declaration of the reality of the body and blood of Jesus. Granville suggested that this segment from 51 to 59, explicitly Eucharistic, probably was originally in the Last Supper in the earlier tradition of John. It was taken out and brought back into chapter 7. And that verse 60 originally followed immediately after verse 50. And then the hard saying is not that the Eucharist is truly, really present, which isn't that hard to believe in many ways, but the saying that you must love one another.

[46:48]

That is the hardest of all the sayings of Jesus, that you must be unselfish. Believe me, it's a lot easier to ginger-fleck before the breath of sacrament and to bow your head And to love your neighbor, love unselfishly, is the hardest thing that there is and also the most fruitful thing there is. Yeah, I mean, you see what John is saying, you know. We have all these things, you know, drive past the church, tip your hat, you know. You may drive off the road, but no matter, tip your hat. He died tipping his hat, you know. See, those are all wonderful things, and we need reverence for the sacrament by all means. It is the central sacrament. It's like both knees bow your heads, you know, fold your hands. But for goodness sakes, recognize that this is a challenge to live the meaning of that sacrament.

[47:51]

And if you drive past and tip your hat and then cut the next man off in traffic and make a gesture to him or something, You don't understand the Western Sacrament at all. The hard saying is not referring, therefore, primarily to the Real Presence, but to the faith acceptance, the faith acceptance of unselfishness as the meaning of the teaching of Jesus, as the meaning of the Sacrament. In other words, the wisdom that preceded the passage about the Eucharist This is the hard saying, this wisdom, this teaching. And this, in fact, seems confirmed in verse 63. It is the spirit that gives life. The flesh can achieve nothing. The words I have spoken to you are both spirit and life. Melanchthon, one of the great reformers after Luther, he said this cannot be the real presence.

[48:56]

Because Jesus said the spirit is what counts, the flesh avails nothing. Well that would be a strange thing to say right after affirming the importance of the flesh. But it makes all the sense in the world if this would be referring back to the teaching of unselfishness. Because the spirit, according to Paul too, the works of the spirit are the works of unselfishness. The works of the flesh are selfishness. It is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh can achieve nothing. That is, selfish behavior can achieve nothing. The Eucharist, then, is the ultimate sign. Indeed, the embodiment of the meaning of Jesus in his life and in his words. But he has no magical power. does not save us in spite of ourselves. Of course, you know, God is merciful and there are many, many people who don't understand this meaning, have not been taught to them very well. So they're making their best they can, you know, and so forth and so on.

[49:59]

And they've never really thought much about baptism and incorporated the meaning of the baptism in their lives. There are a lot of people that are not very well instructed. maybe some of ourselves even, you know. And so God will make allowance for that. But when we know the meaning of the Eucharist, then we have to understand that its challenge is to live for others. But that doesn't mean becoming a doormat. You know, I'm no good, I'm a worm, not a man. No, no. But it means taking the talents you have and the freedom you have and trying to find ways to reach out to others. Even little things, you know, thank you, please, did a good job, you know, affirmation, gratitude, remembering things, remembering birthdays, remembering feast days, remembering things that are important to other people, investing our lives more and more in the lives and concerns of others.

[51:06]

Not through martyrdom, but through a daily sensitivity to where people are and what their needs are. And of course, we monks, we're supposed to be the leaders in this. We're at the front of the procession, moving into the glorious future, full of hope, full of recognition of the promise. We spearhead this. When the Christians see us, and see how happy we are, and how joyful, and how much we praise God, and no matter what, you know, we've got a sore throat today, but I still say the offer, you know, but we do it with a sense of joy. For the joy that lay before him, Jesus made light of the cross. That eschatological pull, the magnetism, which is the hallmark of monastic life. They recognize the illuminated horizon and are moving toward it and are full of joyful expectation.

[52:12]

Well, I mean, you don't have to do this every day, but at least once in a while. This is a sign of the meaning of Jesus in his life, in his words. His power when we embrace it in faith and make it the meaning of our own lives. His power, unlimited power for those who embrace it in a believing way. Receiving communion without a commitment to unselfishness is not going to save us. Receiving communion with a commitment to be unselfish, to be a loving, caring person can do wonders, enabling us to be more unselfish, you know, supporting our weakness. The John's Gospel does not ignore the Eucharist. Wonderfully important and in many ways the ultimate revelation

[53:21]

about the meaning of Eucharist.

[53:23]

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