The highlight of the holiday was my brother George’s 70th Birthday celebration. Many of you know George as the Auctioneer. He and his family are regular visitors to Mirfield.
The meal was held at Stormont the home of the N.I. Assembly. There were 21 of us – all known to each other, all related either by blood or by marriage. The oldest were in their eighties. The youngest was my 6 month old great niece who flirted with me all evening. Her 6 year old brother Eben is my personal trainer when he comes to Mirfield he takes me running round the lawn.
The food was great and as they say in Ulster ‘the craic was powerful’. Everyone was happy. It was indeed a night to remember.
Why were we so happy? Because we were in an historic building? Because the food was delicious? Because it was raining outside? Well…yes, but they were incidentals. There were more profound reasons. We were there for the love of George and because we were there we all loved one another. We were participating in anamnesis shared memory – memory so vivid that we were almost reliving it. We were happy together. Happy because of Georges’ Happy Birthday.
Jesus seems to have been a popular guest at parties. At Cana he outdid the host in generosity. He went to respectable parties with the virtuous as in Simon the Leper and to shady ones with friends such as Zacchaeus. There were comfortable homely suppers with Simon’s mother and with his friends at Bethany, the Last Supper, the Resurrection barbecue on the beach and the supper at Emmaus.
The Gospel reading this morning follows the packed lunch for 5,000 people which was so good that the crowd came back for more. In each case Jesus uses the occasion to reflect on his divine commission and nowhere more so than in the passage in John chapter 6 that I have just read.
“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.
What is Jesus talking about? I want to say: ‘Don’t ask me. I haven’t a clue’. I’m standing in good company – the Apostles rarely understood what their Master was teaching them.
Perhaps we are concentrating too much on the bread and fish. Jesus tells the crowd: ‘Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life’
‘I am, the bread of life’ – Jesus uses this phrase towards the end of his discourse and here we have a clue to his message’
In the Fourth Gospel the term ‘I am’ draws us to think of God’s answer when Moses asks God for his name and gets the reply ‘tell them that I Am sent you’. When Jesus uses the term he is claiming a unique relationship to God the Father. Earlier in his discourse Jesus says “the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Here is the heart of the whole discourse. Jesus and the Father act together to give a new kind of life. Ordinary bread, clothing and other material are good but they are not enough to sustain us in eternal life –only the Bread of Heaven can prepare us for communion with the Father. Jesus, the divine life of God is that bread. When we look to his life in scripture, in prayer and in the sacraments we are already joining with the saints at the great banquet prepared for those that love him.
Is that scary? Are you good enough? What do I need to do?
Let’s listen to George Herbert for an answer:
