"Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in them," says Jesus in John 6:56. All of chapter 6 has Eucharistic overtones but it is only in verses 51-58 that very explicit reference is made to the Eucharistic Meal. Instead of "soma" which the other Gospels and Paul's letters use to mean "body," John uses "sarx," the Greek word for "flesh." Instead of "eat," which the others use, John uses a crude Greek word that carries notions of "gnaw" or "munch" and which Raymond Brown translates "feed on." John seems to want to make it absolutely clear that Jesus is not using metaphor here as he did in the early part of chapter 6. These are vivid words that bring home the truth that "my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink."
In these verses it is not the teaching of Jesus that nourishes our life in God but his flesh and blood, his very self. When we take into ourselves his flesh and blood, we remain in Jesus and he in us. What matters here, and is the purpose of our religion, is our growing in our relationship with God. That growth happens as we let Jesus nourish us with the precious gift of his flesh and blood.
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