True Food – A Meditation with John 6

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A guided audio meditation with John 6:52-60, 66-69, using Lectio Divina.

“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. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. ⁵⁷ Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” ⁵⁹ He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. ⁶⁰ On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

⁶⁶ From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. ⁶⁷ “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

The language here is definitely alarming at face value, but I’m very confident that our Lord is not promoting cannibalism.

What then might it mean, to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ?

His flesh and his blood point, of course, to his life and his death, and all their layered symbols.

And the invitation here is to partake, to share, to step in.

Christ’s invitation is truly so intimate, he speaks of abiding in you, and you abiding in Him (v56). This hints of union (v56), of shared being (v57), of an eternal oneness (v58).

I have now come to see the communion or eucharistic meal as something that nourishes all my energies with the very presence of Christ. He in whom I live and move and have my being.

“This [eucharistic] sacrament is operative to produce both love and union with Christ. The greatest showing of love is to give oneself as food.” – St. Albert the Great

I can only pray that my ongoing transformation through this deepening union enables me to bring some shard of His presence, His light, His food to those near me, to the world.

These are a few of my own meandering thoughts.

May the meditation with these words lead you more deeply into your own reflections.

And may it lead you into deepening intimacy with Christ.

BLESSINGS, DEAR ONES.

Contemplative at Home offers guided meditative prayer – space to slow down and listen to the truth that is being born out of God’s love for you today – drawing on Ignatian spirituality and at times, Lectio Divina.

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All music by Pete Hatch.