16 April 2027 · Latin Rite
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“Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” John 6:56
Saul last appeared holding the coats of the men who stoned Stephen and dragging believers from their homes. Today he is “still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” He asks the high priest for letters to the synagogues of Damascus, so that he may bring to Jerusalem in chains anyone “who belonged to the Way,” the earliest name for the followers of Jesus. Near Damascus “a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’” Saul asks: “Who are you, Lord?” And the answer changes his life and should change ours: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Saul had never laid a hand on Jesus; he had persecuted his disciples. But the risen Lord says: you are persecuting me. Christ and his Church are one, as Head and Body (Catechism 795); what is done to the least of his members is done to him. Saul gets up blind. For three days he neither eats nor drinks, as if he too must pass through a kind of death and burial before rising. Then the Lord calls Ananias, an ordinary disciple of Damascus, who is understandably afraid: “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints.” But the Lord has his own plans: “he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel.” Ananias goes, lays his hands on the man who came to arrest him, and his first word is: “Brother Saul.” Something like scales falls from Saul's eyes; he is baptized, he eats, and at once he proclaims Jesus in the synagogues: “He is the Son of God.” Saul does not leave the God of Israel; he meets the risen Messiah of Israel's God, and spends the rest of his life proclaiming him. St Paul himself retells this story twice in Acts (22 and 26) and in his letters (Galatians 1:15–16; 1 Corinthians 15:8–10). The Psalm, the shortest in the Bible, sums up his new mission: “Praise the LORD, all you nations!”
In the Gospel the Bread of Life discourse reaches its most realistic words. When Jesus says that the bread he will give is his flesh, his hearers in the synagogue of Capernaum dispute among themselves: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” St John calls them “the Jews”; they are Jesus' own people, as he and all his disciples are, honestly puzzled by a hard saying, and the Church does not read such words as blame on the Jewish people (Catechism 597). What matters is that Jesus does not soften what he has said. He makes it stronger: “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” In verse 54 St John even uses a Greek verb that means to chew or munch, as if to close every escape into mere symbolism. “For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.” The fruit of this food is communion: “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” And it is a sharing in the very life of the Trinity: “Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.” This is why the Church believes that in the Most Holy Eucharist “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained” (Catechism 1374). The two readings belong together. On the road to Damascus Jesus said: I am the one you are persecuting, because his disciples are his body. At the altar he says: this is my body, and he makes us his body by feeding us with it. St Augustine told the newly baptized, in substance: be what you see, and receive what you are.
Theme: “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.”
The persecutor stopped on the road, the brother who welcomed him, and the true food and true drink of the Eucharist.
“Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”” 1 Samuel 3:10
“He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”” Acts 9:4–5
Apply: Examine your conscience this week: whom in Christ's body have I hurt, and how can I make it right?
“Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.”” Genesis 45:4
“So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”” Acts 9:17
Apply: Welcome warmly one person who is returning to the Church or new to your parish.
“Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.” Proverbs 9:5
“for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” John 6:55–56
Apply: Make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament this week and tell the Lord simply: I believe you are truly here.
The risen Lord stops the persecutor, and a frightened brother welcomes him into the Church.
Christ gives us his true Body and Blood so that we abide in him and become his body for the world.
Take-home resolution: Visit the Blessed Sacrament once this week and greet one person you have avoided as brother or sister.
Dear friends, Saul was on his way to arrest Christians. Suddenly a light from heaven, and a voice: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Saul asks: who are you, Lord? And the answer: I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting (Acts 9:4–5). Not my disciples. Me.
Jesus is so united with his people that what is done to them is done to him. When we hurt one another, we hurt Christ. When we serve the poor, we serve Christ. The Church is not a club of his admirers; it is his body.
Then comes Ananias, a simple disciple who is afraid of Saul, and rightly so. But he obeys. He goes into the house, lays his hands on the man who came to arrest people like him, and says: Brother Saul (Acts 9:17). With that one word the persecutor becomes family. Who is the Saul in your life to whom you need to say: brother, sister?
In the Gospel Jesus says the strongest words about the Eucharist: my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them (John 6:55–56). He does not say: this is like my body. He gives himself. So let us receive him with faith, and then go out to be his body for others. Alleluia. Amen.
Children, Saul was mean to Christians. But Jesus loved him and spoke to him with a great light. Saul changed and became St Paul, one of Jesus' greatest friends! Jesus can change anyone's heart. And in Holy Communion Jesus gives us his own Body, so that he lives in us and we live in him.
Lord Jesus, you stopped Saul on the road to Damascus, opened his eyes and made the persecutor an apostle. Turn our hearts to you, give us the courage of Ananias to call our enemies brothers and sisters, and let us so receive your true Body and Blood that we may abide in you and you in us, now and for ever. Amen. Alleluia.