“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” Some of the words used to define or describe life are very interesting and worth exploring like being, existence, transcendence, eternal. Words that can only have true meaning or purpose in context or relation to God. Our being, meaning who we are and who we were created to be comes directly from God; can only come from God. He and he alone has the power to give life, to create such beauty and give such purpose and meaning to life. Being then, in its most basic and concrete form is simply being God’s precious and special creation; his beloved child. Our existence, meaning the fact that we are human beings, real people and not robots simply means to exist in God’s thoughts, to be in his presence, to exist in his heart. Existence came to be through God’s amazing grace and his eternal love seeking to share love outside his awesomeness. Our existence wasn’t required or needed or helpful in anyway to God because God is infinitely perfect and perfectly complete in every way. We added nothing to God or his greatness. Love has simply caused our existence and calls us to simple love always; to love from deep within without placing conditions and to love always by reaching out of ourselves to another. Our transcendence, meaning the state of being or existence above and beyond the limits of the material or mortal experience can only be explained through that which is divine. Life beyond the lived experience is to experience the beatific vision, to enjoy perpetual peace, to rejoice in the presence of the Almighty for ever. Who else can transcend time and space, limits and conditions, life and existence other than God who is for ever? God alone is eternal, meaning infinite, endless, everlasting. God offers life to us through Jesus, who is the Eternal Word of God, who transcended death through the Victory of the Cross, who existed before the dawn of time and who took the form of our lowly human existence to restore life within us. Jesus graciously reminds us that life, meaning true life can only exist through him, with him and in him. That unless we believe in the One God sent into our being to save us and transcend our death into eternal life and unless we receive him in Word and Sacrament into our limited existence we simply can not have life with in us.
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time