We’ve spoken before about unequal friendships, where, for example, one person wants to spend more time with the other but the other person isn’t as interested.  Is there anyone in our life who wants to spend time with us, but we don’t want it as much?  Our parents, spouse, children?  Next, with whom do we want to spend more time, but they don’t want it?  Complete this sentence: ‘I wish I could spend more time with _______.’

The night before Jesus dies for us, He says, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Lk 22:15)—God Himself wants to be with His friends.  Because we’re made in His image, this explains why we want so badly to be with others and why it hurts when they don’t want to be with us.

Today is Corpus Christi, one of the most distinct Catholic celebrations: God wants to be with us so much that He takes the appearance of bread, so that we can become one with Him.  Today, Jesus says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven… and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (Jn 6:51).  Is this a metaphor?  Jesus tells us to cut off our hand if it causes us to sin—that’s a metaphor; no Christian ever did this because they knew it was a symbol of taking sin seriously.  But, when He talks about His flesh being bread, the crowd takes Him literally: “The people then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’” (6:52).  Two chapters earlier, the disciples told Jesus to eat, and He said that He had something to eat that they didn’t know about.  So they asked if someone had brought Him food.  And He clarified that the food He was referring to was to do God’s will—a metaphor.  However, in today’s Gospel He clarifies that He’s not using a metaphor: “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… for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink” (6:53,55).  Notice Jesus doesn’t just continue to talk about eating His flesh, but adds that they must drink His blood—another literal command.  And, in this section, instead of just saying ‘eat,’ Jesus, in the original Greek, starts using the word for ‘chew’—more physical language.

This is why every Christian for the first 1,000 years of Church history believed that Jesus was really present in the Eucharist.  Hands up if we know a Catholic who’s left to go to a Protestant church?  Yet, are we aware that many high-profile Protestants become Catholic but it’s rare that high-profile Catholics become Protestant?

Dr. Allen Hunt was once pastor of a mega church.  When studying today’s Gospel with some Catholic nuns, he started seeing that the Eucharist was more than a symbol.  In the years that followed, he started leaning more Catholic.  For example, every year, during vacation, he would go to Mass!  His reasoning was: If I visit a Protestant church, I might get a good sermon, I might get a bad one—that’s too risky because I only have four Sundays off every year and can’t afford to waste a single one.  “So I usually worshipped at a Catholic church where I knew exactly what I would get — not so much a sermon, but a timeless liturgy centered on the Eucharist, the Creed, and the sacrifice of our Lord.”  He became Catholic in 2008.  Many Protestant pastors and theologians study the Bible and so become Catholic.  However, because many Catholics still leave the Church, we have to do a better job of introducing them to Jesus, because many say that they meet Jesus in Protestant churches.

Furthermore, we need to explain better the Eucharist: How does bread become Jesus’ body?  Let’s repeat the explanation for those who are new. We use the philosophical categories of substance and accidents: Substance is what a thing is while accidents simply mean characteristics that can change.  For example, if I wear a disguise, I’m still Fr. Justin.  If I then get horribly burnt and you can’t recognize me, I’m still Fr. Justin.  If I also lose my memory and can’t remember myself, I’m still Fr. Justin.  So, my characteristics can change but there’s something beneath my characteristics that stays the same: my substance/identity.  With the Eucharist, it’s the opposite: Jesus changes the substance of bread while the characteristics stay the same—that’s a miracle that only God can do.

The reason for this miracle is the following: “Whoever eats [chews] my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in them.  Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats [chews] me will live because of me” (6:56-57).  The reason He takes the appearance of food is to nourish us—we get life from the food we eat.  Whatever we eat, we assimilate; it becomes part of us.  But, when we eat the Eucharist, because Jesus is greater, He transforms us into Him.  He loves us so much that He wants to be inside us.

Does Jesus’ desire help us understand why we’re inviting 500 of us to sign up for weekly adoration?  He wants us to spend time with Him, and then become one with Him when we receive Communion.

On July 5, we’re going to take a midyear survey: We’re going to ask: ‘Starting Jan. 1, 2027 are you committing to weekly adoration?  [Name].’  We’d like to know where we’re at with regard to this initiative.

I was once at someone’s house and he asked, ‘Why do I have to go to church when God is everywhere?’  I reached for the picture of his daughter and said, ‘Do you want to be with a photograph of your daughter or spend time with her in person?’  Think deeply about how much we want to be with the people we love and then we’ll understand Jesus’ command to eat His flesh.  If we were to ask Jesus to complete the sentence, ‘I wish I could spend more time with _______,’ He would answer with our name.