John 6:52-59 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood shall live

As a child my siblings and I were always curious about vampire and zombie movies.  There was always something so very wrong with sub human creatures drinking human blood, or eating their brains that made us laugh.  We knew it was fiction.  As an adult I was briefly amused and annoyed when a friend learned that I was a Catholic and asked how could I be?--I was such a nice person, but did how could I partake in human sacrifice every Sunday and eat them?  It was a clear sign that our Church needs to do more in educating our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who belong to other churches. 

In today's Gospel the Jews are taken aback asking themselves, "How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?"  It is as shocking to them as it was to my friend.  What does Jesus mean?

Think back to the wedding feast at Cana.  That is a precursor to the Heavenly banquet.  We are to be nourished and sustained in our faith.  All we need to do is believe.  The Son came down from Heaven like the manna in the desert.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us, " From the beginning Jesus associated his disciples  with his own life, revealed in the mystery of the kingdom to them, and gave them a share in his mission, joy, and sufferings." (CCC 787)  In joining with him, we come into communion with him, an ecclesiological communion which mimics that of the Father and Holy Spirit to the Son.  We share in his resurrection.  His flesh is our flesh, his blood our blood.  We, the Church,  are his body and he is our head.  At the Last Supper he gave us himself through the grace of transubstantiation whereby the substance of the bread was changed to Him while the outer veil remained like bread, and the same with the wine, that substance became him, for us to consume, to be nourished, not just physically, but spiritually with the grace that is God, inebriated with his Divine love and mercy. 

John 21:1-19 Do you love me?

In today's Gospel the Apostles are fishing, catching nothing.  Easter is a time of joy and new beginnings in the Light of the Resurrected Christ.  As the dawn breaks, they see Christ Jesus upon the shore.  Recall that he had summoned them to be fishers of men in a similar way before the crucifixion.  Again he calls them to be fishers of men, in a sense, by lowering their nets into the ride side of the boat.  Clement of Alexandria wrote about Jesus in a hymn in his Pedagogues III,

"...Fisher of men,

you, their Savior:

from the sea of evil

you pull the pure fish,

out of the hostile storm

you draw them to the life of blessedness..."

We are the fish, while Peter and the Apostles represent the Church in relation to Christ.  They bring us to the shore bathed in light where Jesus is waiting.  That Christ breaks the bread with them in that first breakfast of the Resurrection assures us that he will continue to nourish us. 

Why does he do this?  Love.  He asks Peter three times, "Do you love me?"  It is as if to undo those three times that Peter denied him.  At the same time, each time Peter says, I love you, it could be though of as saying it to each member of the Holy Trinity, with whom he is in communion with; and at the same time, he stands for us, as the rock on which our church is founded.  He answers for us, "Yes Lord, I love you."  My we continue loving the Lord with each moment of our lives.  Amen.