“For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink.”
In saying “true food” and “true drink,” Jesus’ words catch my attention. What does that even mean? Every time I eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a snack, isn’t that true food, true drink? What is not true about the food and drink I take daily?
God, help me understand your words more clearly. I can venture to say that true food sustains me spiritually, that it is the bread of life come down from heaven, that taking it will not leave me hungry again soon, as earthly food does. I have heard true food described as the living bread, that which does not die and become assimilated when taking it. Unlike earthly food, the Flesh and Blood of Christ continues to live and transform what is dead in me into life in the spirit. And unlike earthly food, the more that take from it, it is no less diminished or fragmented. An example: in the Multiplication of the Loaves, Jesus takes the loaves and what would ordinarily be divided into fragments he multiplies into superabundance!
The quiet rain and call of the chickadee this morning remind me that silence is never lack of sound but an act of quieting down to know that God is present with me. That’s true for any given moment. I want to turn to him throughout the day and realize I have in that the true food that gives me life.
Today, like Paul in the first reading when scales fall from his eyes, I want to see clearly where God directs me. I want to take from the true food and true drink that will sustain me, and God willing, give me eternal life.