A Johannine approach to the Eucharist

Source: here

We, too, can be transformed into bread broken for a world that hungers. Here is a short prayer based on a reading of the Gospel of John that I composed many years ago:

In the beginning was the Word
And the Word became flesh

And that flesh became bread;

Which has now become us

Broken for a united world

Returning to the source from it came

And so, after we come to the close of a long discourse in the sixth chapter of Saint John. Let’s recap on what we have heard, read and mediated in our hearts whenever we take the sixth chapter of Saint John into our hearts and minds:

Jesus feeds all of those who come to him (John 6:1-15)

The crowds ask for a sign.  Jesus declares (verse 35): ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty’.  (John 6:24-35).

And then he goes a step further (verse 51): ‘Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’ (John 6:41-51)

And unless anyone still has not got it he says (vs 54-55): ‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.’  (John 6:51-58)

May we believe this mystery, proclaim it and live it out in our daily lives.