Eucharist: Mystery of Incarnation Enacted
Why did Jesus use bread and wine – mere objects of food – to institute the Eucharist? I offer two possible reflections on this mystery.
The enactment of the Mystery of Incarnation: In the gospel of today, in the discourse that follows the multiplication of loaves Jesus would say,
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the world” (Jn 6:51).
As we know, this passage has clear allusion to the Eucharist. Earlier in the same passage Jesus compares the Eucharist to the manna that the people of Israel ate in the desert (Jn 6:49-50). Though Jesus says analogically, Eucharist is bread that came down from heaven we know that the Eucharist does not fall from the skies as manna did. This is what I find so inspiring.
Just as Jesus was ‘God who came down from heaven’ but did not fall from the skies, he took his flesh from another human person – a woman, Mary, the Eucharist is bread that comes down from heaven, but it does not fall from the skies. It takes the form of the bread that we offer in blessing to God. Therefore, every time we celebrate the Eucharist we are celebrating the enactment of the mystery of incarnation. In the mystery of incarnation, “The Word became flesh, he lived among us” (Jn 1:14); in the mystery of the Eucharist, God takes flesh, so that He could become part of our flesh and blood. And this awareness is so awesome: God takes flesh, so that He could become part of our flesh and blood.
The Holy Exchange: What could this mean? What could the mystery of the incarnation and the mystery of the Eucharist mean? As St Francis de Sales says, we humans are like caterpillars. God in Jesus becomes a caterpillar, dies, enters the tomb (the pupa), and rises again to life like a butterfly. The mysteries of incarnation and the resurrection offer us a sense of hope that we can also become like butterflies.
In the mystery of the Eucharist, God in Jesus takes on the form of bread and wine, so that we who participate in them could become more God-like. During the Eucharistic celebration, as the priest prepares the wine, he adds a drop of water into the chalice and he silently prays: “By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.”
As we participate in the Eucharist, on this feast of the precious body and blood of our Lord, may we so worthily partake of the body and blood of Christ, that we may come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.
For a longer version of the sermon <<CLICK HERE>>
Sermon for Corpus Christi – Year B <<CLICK HERE>>