00:15Well, we are now about to enter this crucial part, which is the revelation of the wonderful miracle
00:25of the Eucharist, and that Saint John, who writes late in life, leaves it for us in his Gospel.
00:31I want to invite you to go to your Bible, and now we are going to underline, we are going to look at the verses of
00:39verse 48 to verse 51.
00:45If you have a pen or a highlighter lying around, this text is important.
00:50In the following verses we are going to do, well, I invite you to do some underlining,
00:56because it's important so that you can review and check them calmly afterwards.
01:02Let's go now to verses 48 to 51.
01:06Jesus says,
01:08I am the bread of life.
01:12Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert and died.
01:16This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that anyone who eats it will not die.
01:23I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
01:27If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever.
01:33The bread that I will give you is bread for the life of the world, and it is my flesh.
01:41The bread that I will give them for the life of the world is my flesh.
01:46I would like you to underline this last part of the verse.
01:51The bread that I will give you, that is, this bread that I am going to give you, is for life
01:58of the world and is my flesh.
02:01I mean, look at the depth it has for the life of the world, and it is its flesh.
02:10You will surely remember how the Israelites ate bread that fell from the sky.
02:14It was called manna.
02:15If you want to delve a little deeper into this, you can go to chapter 16 of Exodus.
02:21And it was bread like the kind we eat.
02:25But all who ate that bread eventually died.
02:30The bread that Jesus now offers is bread so that whoever eats it will live forever.
02:38And he is the bread.
02:41His flesh is bread.
02:43And it is bread that keeps man from dying.
02:47Yeah.
02:48As he declares, and that's why I was telling you, underline the end of this verse 51.
02:56Faced with such a statement, the Jews were stunned and astonished, and said,
03:02How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
03:05Sure, I mean, what's the deal with this, right?
03:09And well, it was only fitting to feed the people who laugh at their own flesh.
03:18This madman thought the people would become cannibals.
03:24If you thought this was scandalous and unbelievable, just look at what he's saying now in what is the center of
03:32what is known as the Eucharistic discourse.
03:35Let's read the following verses, position yourself, verses 53 and 54.
03:42Let's read this and also underline some words, okay?
03:48Jesus said, then Jesus said to them, truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and
04:00They don't drink your blood, he emphasizes, they have no life in you, right?
04:06Verse 54.
04:07He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, emphasize this whole bit.
04:17Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.
04:21This is complete because it's where the positive expression comes in: eating and drinking the flesh of Christ to have
04:30eternal life.
04:31And it says at the end, and I will raise him up on the final day.
04:36It says in verse 55, for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.
04:46What is he telling us here at the end?
04:50In other words, it is not, as the Protestants say, simply a sign.
04:56It is not, therefore, simply an invented situation or merely spiritual or metaphorical.
05:06No, gentlemen.
05:08My flesh and my blood are real food.
05:16In these verses, then, it becomes perfectly clear.
05:19It is necessary to eat the flesh of Christ.
05:22Whoever eats this flesh has eternal life.
05:26He who doesn't, doesn't have it.
05:29That's clear.
05:31This fully reveals the importance of the Eucharist.
05:36However, this was so scandalous that many of his disciples began to leave.
05:43They said, "This is too difficult."
05:46It is a doctrine that cannot be followed.
05:49And well, the truth is, it was no small matter.
05:54I'm sure their question would be, all right, but how?
05:59How can we eat their flesh?
06:02And how are we going to drink his blood?
06:04Are we going to become cannibals?
06:08It was therefore necessary to believe in Jesus.
06:12Believe in his word.
06:14Even though this seemed completely unbelievable to them.
06:19And even impossible.
06:21However, look at St. Peter's answer in verses 68 and 69.
06:28He is the one to tell them, yes, we believe.
06:33He says, "Lord, to whom shall we go?"
06:38You have the words of eternal life.
06:41We, look at verse 69.
06:44We have believed and know that you are the Holy One of God.
06:50It is therefore necessary to believe in Christ in order to be able to access this banquet.
06:57At that moment they couldn't imagine what it would be like, but they probably thought that whatever it was, well, it was what it was.
07:06we're going to do it.
07:07Well, it is the word of our Lord.
07:09Lord, once again we see the importance of the word.
07:14This word must be part of our lives as Christians.
07:19A word that, as we have already said, must be believed without question.
07:24This is the only way we can truly access the sacred banquet.
07:32Okay, let's stop here.
07:34There is time to meditate.
07:36Let's stop for a moment because I think everything we've said so far really leads us to, well, understanding, right?
07:46I would hope that with this, which is the word of God, right?
07:51Because it is taken directly from the Holy Scripture of Saint John.
07:54That is why it is called the Eucharistic discourse.
07:58I believe that's where we have the foundation.
08:00In other words, it's not a chihuahua.
08:01I mean, people say, why didn't you get it done in the community?
08:03Why do I have to go to communion?
08:05So that?
08:06It's not needed.
08:07I believe in God.
08:09Ah, yes.
08:10It's good that you believe in God.
08:11That's why I told you, he emphasizes, he who does not eat and drink, has no entrance to heaven.
08:23Yes, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has access to heaven and says, and I will raise him up.
08:32Do you want to be resurrected?
08:34Think about your son and your godchild.
08:39Do you want them to be resurrected?
08:42They must eat of the body and blood of the Lord.
08:46Otherwise, no.
08:49So, you see the importance of you starting to assimilate all of this that we have been telling you in these catechesis sessions.
08:58So that you may live the Christian life with intensity.
09:02And your children or those who come after you can also learn it from you.
09:08Let's take a moment to pause.
09:10We'll be back in a moment.
09:12Thank you!
09:13Thanks for watching the video.
