Twentieth Sunday or Ordinary time Year B

At this time of the annual trauma of Leaving Cert results and hand-wringing to discuss whether there is another better way to evaluate pupil learning and effect entry to college places we often look back (and shudder at the length of time that has passed since our own Leaving Cert). It brings back memories of school-days as well.

Every teacher has a catch-phrase. Some of our secondary teachers had a nick-name and a catch-phrase – some amounted to the same thing! If you recall teachers you had at school, some of whom were excellent, no doubt, we remember things they said and how they said them. One teacher my brother had has a whole blog, devised by past pupils, of comments he said often, which are quite hilarious if you knew him and understood the context. One of his memorable phrases to correct whispering or murmuring at the back of the classroom was ‘who’s hearing confessions down the back?!’

Whether drilled into us by fear or method some phrases or information from our learning sticks with us. It is a salute to the effectiveness of the teaching method, whether it was a justifiable technique accomplished through force or fear is another matter! But the best teachers loved their subject and it showed. They never had to resort to discipline. It just wasn’t an issue. They were so clear and focussed that we hung on their every word.

One of our English teachers had a memorable expression ‘repetition for emphasis’.

Often a difficult topic was one that would have to be revised more than once.  We would be told that it was a difficult exam question if we were to attempt it – not for the faint-hearted. Afterwards, we might be asked, ‘how did you get in that question?’

It is an important teaching technique to repeat information that is difficult at first hearing to process. A phrase might have to be examined, re-worded, and studied in depth. Especially important were definitions to be learnt off – eventually they might stick inn our minds.

Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you cannot have life in you.

FIVE TIMES Jesus unequivocally refers to His flesh and blood, not just once or twice, not in the symbolic sense. Like any parent or teacher he must repeat Himself –a total of five times in case they - and we - don’t get it!

See in the Gospel today how often Jesus repeats Himself, without changing his statement (see John 6:51-58):

 

1. The bread that I shall give is my flesh,

for the life of the world.’

1. if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,

you will not have life in you.

1. Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood

has eternal life,

and I shall raise him up on the last day.

1. For my flesh is real food

and my blood is real drink.

1. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood

lives in me

and I live in him.

 

The Jews question this saying ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’

And we will return to this point next week.

 It is an important and crucial question that we should pause to recall often and consider for ourselves, repeating   ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ – But can there be any room for doubt when Jesus says it five times and adds ‘I tell you most solemnly?

Let us pray over it, asking God to help us to accept even without ever fully understanding that this is a fact and a core doctrine of our faith Jesus gives me - us - His very flesh and blood to drink in the Eucharist. That this is something Jesus desires for us, to share in His very life, in order to obtain eternal life. What does it mean for me? How do I respond?