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Since the Resurrection is the reality and fullness of new life, it also marks a definitive break with the past.  This comes out especially in the Gospel narratives where we encounter the risen Christ.  He no longer looks the same, He is only really recognizable in the Word and the Eucharistic Bread.  He encourages His disciples to look forward to the new gift: the Paraclete.  “It is good for you that I go, because if I don’t, the Holy Spirit will not come to you.”  Jesus focuses on His relationship with the Father and encourages His disciples to be “in Him” just as He is in the Father.  Christ is the same yesterday today and forever, but our relationship with Him as with God is something that must constantly be evolving and deepening. read more

Jesus is both gate and shepherd.  Perhaps the significance of this dual image will help us understand progressively where Jesus is taking us.  Certainly Jesus wants to provide us with a new destination: heaven.  We have to follow Him in order to arrive at that destination.  Jesus is also the door however:  we must step into him and through him in order to reach the place where He wants to finally lead us.

It shouldn’t surprise us that Jesus acts in different and progressively more direct and intimate ways as we grow in our Christian life.  St. John provides us with the seven “I am”s of Christ to introduce us into the mystery of His manifold presence and action in our lives. read more

The end of Jesus’ teaching on the Bread of Life brings us straight to the gift of the Eucharist.  St. John does not record the words of Christ at the Last Supper, but we may suppose that this part of the teaching was given at the Last Supper.  St. John includes it as part of the discourse given in Capharnaum undoubtedly to help us connect the two events.  Jesus began teaching about a real gift of food he was to give his disciples before his passion.   Food is certainly something that “dies” in order to give life to the one who destroys it.  Christ offers Himself to be destroyed, “chewed up,” consumed by those who believe in Him, that their hearts may be resurrected into His own Living Flesh.  Eating the Eucharistic Bread with faith causes a transformation of our flesh, most especially the flesh of our heart. read more