Holy Digestion
We have all heard the phrase, “you are what you eat.” It’s been used by doctors, news reports, and health food marketing teams as motivation or guilt to make people eat healthier. To a degree this idea is preposterous and maybe even counterintuitive since I’d much rather be a cow than a patch of broccoli, but I think we all know what this idea is getting at. You get out what you put in. Yet there is an even deeper connection to what we consume and who we are. Amino acids are the building blocks that our body uses from the food we eat to make new cells and muscles. What we ingest is what our bodies use to create the new us. Or maybe you could say, “what we eat determines what we become.”
Jesus said a lot of things that seem pretty out there if you try and take it literally. ”You must be born again,” “If your right hand causes you to sin cut it off,” “Eat my flesh and drink my blood.” Now cannibalism is generally looked down on in our society and so when we read these words of Jesus we wonder how we do this. How do I ingest the very essence on Jesus? It’s as if Jesus is saying that it’s not enough to listen to my words, to hear my teachings, to quote me to other people, or even wear your WWJD bracelets, you have to take me in. Consume me so that my very essence becomes who you are.
Christians have practiced a ritual for thousands of years that is a way for us to physically perform this very spiritual act. It has been called the Eucharist, Mass, the Lord’s Supper, and Communion. We eat a piece of bread representing Jesus’ body and drink wine or juice representing Jesus’ blood. We remember what Jesus did, we have communion with him in the present, and look forward to what he will do to fulfill what he started. For us this is a symbol of what Jesus said when he commanded us to eat his flesh and drink his blood. And we hope that more of his essence becomes who we are.