Tastes of Beauty in the Body of Christ

She was young. But she remembers that dry day like it was  yesterday. “This is ridiculous. How can he give us his flesh to eat?”  She listens to the shouting. She sits outside the synagogue. As a  woman, she’s not permitted to enter. But she can hear them clearly.  This is Jesus of Nazareth they are yelling at; Jesus, whose love has  transformed her; Jesus, whose words burn like a fire inside of her.  Can they not see what he is offering? “Bread of Life—who does he  think he is? We know his father from Nazareth. He’s a carpenter’s  son.” The door opens and the leaders stomp their feet into the dust  of the dry ground and walk away. 

She wants to shout after them in the distance, “You never really  heard him,” but again she hears voices at the doorway, not so loud,  but irritated: “This saying is hard; who can accept it? The Bread  of Life! How can he say he is the Bread of Life?” Those who had  walked closely with him began to walk away also. She knew these  ones. She had eaten with them. They were his own. “We will no  longer go with him . . . I am going home.” She is grief-stricken. She  shouts, “How can you leave him? His words are Spirit and life!”  “Ah, woman, you are young. Go home also.” 

 The door opens a third time and he comes out, full of sorrow.  “Will you also leave me?” Peter says the words she will remember all  her life. She has told them to her children and her children’s children.  Now as her community is struggling with betrayal and desertion, she  shares what Peter said: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the  words of eternal life.” 

Rain began to fall on the dry soil, watering the earth. 

Consider/Discuss 

• Is this teaching of Jesus too hard? Doubt tastes like dust in the mouth.  Faith refreshes like the rain. As many walk away, how can we express what  Jesus in the Eucharist means to us? How can we describe the taste of glory  that comes as we open our hands to receive him? 
• We believe that the Eucharist is the sacrament of unity in the Church.  Yet like this unnamed young woman of the first century, some sit at the  peripheries, some voices are not heard, some are rendered invisible. How  can we be more conscientious in our sharing, our koinonia, in bringing in  those at the edges, to solidify the Body of Christ?

Living and Praying with the Word 

Lord, you are the Bread of Life. We have tasted your manna. We  have been touched by your presence. You unite us so that together  we can abide in you. At the same time, we grieve for those who walk  away. We love them. How can they go? Even the angels weep. 

Holy Spirit, bubble up within us so that we bring your life to the  world in which we live.