Jesus says in the Gospel, “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.” The word eat in this sentence is not the classical word for eat in the Greek. The Greek word for eat in these verses better translates as chew, chomp, gnaw, or munch. It’s a very graphic word for eat. I believe Jesus uses the graphical form of eat because he doesn’t want us to simply antiseptically eat his body, but He wants us to chew on his life. Christ’s life must be chewed on.
I like the word chew because it implies eating something of substance. This is not something that can be consumed whole. We would like it to be over and done, but there is so much to eat. We have to bite pieces off at a time. So it is with Christ’s life. We can only chew a part of Christ at a time. We have to keep at it. Gradually the secrets are revealed. Not that they are secrets. They are as plain as day, but it’s just that the depth has changed. For example, early in our life we believe in the factual statement of dying and rising. Later in life, we have actual experiences of what that feels like. The more we chew the more is revealed. This is why we have to keep coming back to church at least once a week. It takes time to chew on the eternal.
God bless,
Fr. Chris