Daily Gospel Reflection
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April 28, 2023
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
“How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?”
Jesus said to them,
“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.
Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.
For my Flesh is true food,
and my Blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
As I write this, I’m sitting in a silent church on a Saturday morning, staring at a simple piece of bread in an ornate monstrance surrounded by candles and incense. I’ve realized over the years that my soul needs to be here every Saturday morning to truly feel whole.
Every other time during the week, I’m more of an analytical man. But when I walk into the church, I embrace the mysteries of our faith—chief among them that an otherwise uninteresting piece of bread and some wine become the real Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
This is the same Body and Blood that Jesus discussed in today’s gospel, the same Body and Blood that Jesus first outpoured at the Last Supper and broke at the crucifixion, and the same Body and Blood that was made new in the Resurrection.
In this Holy Hour, I suspend any doubts and let that mystery of Christ rush over me. I allow it to cleanse my heart, mind, and soul of all the things I fear I should be or should have to do and the anxiety that distracts me from seeing the man God has made me to be. I allow myself at that moment to become like Christ—a mystery united in love with the Father.
I think a lot about why Jesus decided to give himself to us as the most basic food and drink. In offering himself as “true food” and “true drink,” he showed us how much he wanted to become one with us down to the very molecules that feed our physical cells. Christ yearns that we become more complete in frequent Eucharist.
May we each suspend our doubts and receive in faith Jesus’ overflowing life into our hearts this Easter Season!
Prayer
Jesus, we can picture ourselves listening to you in that synagogue. We
cannot comprehend what you are saying. It is too much for us to take
in—eating flesh and drinking blood to gain eternal life. We need your
help to more deeply appreciate the meaning of those words, the mystery
of the Eucharist, and what it does for our lives and the life of the
world. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Even though he was born in a small village in the eastern part of France, St. Peter Chanel is the patron saint of Oceania because that is where he was martyred as a missionary.
Peter was born in 1803 in eastern France and was a shepherd boy until the family’s parish priest convinced Peter’s parents to let him attend the small school the priest had just opened. Peter was clearly both smart and faithful, and he was sent to a larger, Church-sponsored school.
There, he read letters from missionaries who had left France and come to America, and he was inspired to follow them. He continued to succeed in school, and entered the seminary.
He was ordained in 1827, and asked his bishop for permission to become a missionary, but the bishop denied his request, assigning him to a parish. Peter applied himself diligently to his ministry—he was known for his zeal and for his care for the sick—and within a few years, the parish was revitalized.
During this time, Peter came into contact with a group of priests gathering into a new missionary order dedicated to Mary. In 1831, he joined these Marists with the hope of finally reaching the missions, but they assigned him to be a spiritual director at a seminary. He stayed there for five years, helping the new order ground itself and receive official recognition.
Then, in 1836, the Marists were asked to send missionaries to islands in the south Pacific. Finally, Peter was allowed to follow his life’s longing, and he set out that year with seven others. After nearly a year’s voyage, Peter settled in Futuna, a small Polynesian island that is now part of the French-administered territory of Wallis and Futuna.
The group was welcomed to Futuna, and Peter set out to learn the local culture. After struggling with the language, he came to master it, and applied patience and courage to the isolation and poverty he met there. Slowly, his mission started to bear fruit among the local people.
Then, Futuna’s king came to fear Peter and Christianity because he saw that it would threaten his power and status. When the king’s own son sought baptism from Peter, the king decided that was enough. He enlisted his leading warrior, Musumusu, to kill Peter, and the soldier took a group of others to attack the missionary. They surprised Peter and clubbed him to death on this date in 1841.
It is said that Peter’s death led to many conversions, and that the whole island adopted Christianity soon after his death. The warrior who led the attack on Peter eventually claimed the faith for his own, and humbly asked that he be buried outside of the church that held Peter’s relics, so that anyone who came to honor Peter would have to walk over his grave to do it. Other relics of St. Peter rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica on campus.
St. Peter Chanel, you are patron saint of the south Pacific because you gave your life to bring the faith there—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Peter Chanel is in the public domain. Last accessed February 13, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
