If you don’t eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have a life in you.

This is disgusting, of course, it is disgusting. It is not the language of religion, but the language of the slaughterhouse and the butchers, for a start; sides of meat hanging on hooks and blood all over the floor – that’s what this is about. It is not a church-like language.

St John is often referred to as a writer who takes some basic thoughts about Jesus and turns them into poetry. Well, this isn’t poetic, not at all!

Could I remind you, though, of something that was obvious 2,000 years ago might not be so obvious now. When the Temple in Jerusalem was still standing, however, not since, Jewish religion was a very flesh and blood conflict. Many animals were slaughtered and burned, and sometimes just cooked and eaten as a holy meal. This was the foundation of Jewish religion. In the Old Testament, you can read all of it. The last supper was this type of holy meal, with roast lamb on the table. Everyone had a taste of God’s goodness. It made them grateful for all His blessings to them. If there is nothing to thank God for, why bother at all.

“If you don’t have my flesh and blood to eat and drink” doesn’t mean “unless you’re a cannibal”, then. It means, rather than replacing one type of worship with another. Take away the slaughter of animals for sacrifices in the temple. Here is a human being who will lay down his life for his friends. Here are three hours on the Cross which Jesus experiences as worship. Here is a human suffering and not an animal.

You can see that this is an even more disgusting idea than you thought it was in the first place. Offering almighty God an animal is foolish enough but why murder a perfectly decent human being. What kind of religion is that?

I am aware of some people who can understand this with the heart, if not with the head. There are people for whom just to be alive is extremely terrible. There are people in a lot of difficulty. Only Christ who can reach them is one who can understand what they are going through. The only God who can be God for them is a God who is on the Cross.

Our first reading emphasized the Wisdom of God offering hospitality, inviting visitors to come and eat, as the waiters do on the doorsteps of restaurants in some of those tourist destinations. Those who feel depressed by life have a certain sense of wisdom. They are aware that the God who died in Jesus is understanding them. They are aware that in their Lord, a wise and loving God has come down to suffer with them. Jesus is still on the Cross, with them.

Today Jesus our Lord, who is referred to as the Wisdom of God, stands here and says, come eat my bread and drink the wine that I have prepared, for all is now ready. At the last supper, he discussed sacrifice, about giving your life to your friends. He discussed suffering, about being killed on Good Friday. He put the meaning of his suffering and death and sacrifice into the bread and into the wine, so that afterwards, his disciples would remember it.

Jesus said about the bread, this is my body.  Just what a Jew would say.  A modern English-speaker would have said, this is me, this is me. This is my blood, my lifeblood. The body will be broken, and the blood will be splattered tomorrow, as in a slaughterhouse, on Calvary. Forever you are to eat bread and drink wine and take the meaning of what I have done for you. Do it to remember me – he does not mean simply, as though it were a token or shade of what I do for you, a wee token. Do it that you may have life in you, I in you and you in me. Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, St Paul explains, you are proclaiming his death.

The Mass then is that kind of meal. All there is to see is the bread and the cup on the table, instead of the lamb. Nothing to kill: the killing stopped on Good Friday for on that day Jesus died out on death and was revealed to them on Easter as the crucified and risen one, who was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Everyone who believes can taste on their lips the goodness of Christ who loves and who suffers.  This is our thanksgiving to God made known in Jesus, who wills to live and to suffer in each of us.