The Flesh and Blood Encounter

Voice over by Angeline Chue Chue

Acts 9:1-20, Psalm: 116, Jn 6:52-59

My dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Today, the Church presents us with two encounters that seem worlds apart. One is a violent persecutor struck down by blinding light. The other is a crowd struggling to understand how a man can give his flesh to eat. Yet both reveal the same truth: to encounter Christ is to be confronted with the scandal of His flesh and blood, and to be transformed by it forever.

In the Acts of the Apostles, Saul of Tarsus is on his way to Damascus, breathing murderous threats against the disciples. He has letters authorizing him to arrest any followers of the Way. He is the embodiment of resistance to the Gospel. Then a light from heaven flashes around him. He falls to the ground and hears the voice: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” The risen Lord identifies Himself with His persecuted Church. Saul asks, “Who are you, Lord?” The answer: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” In that moment, everything changes. The persecutor becomes an apostle. The one who hunted the Church becomes its most eloquent voice. This transformation is so complete that Ananias, sent to heal him, calls him “brother Saul.”

What happened? Saul encountered the risen, glorified flesh of Christ. He met the one who had been crucified and now lives. That encounter shattered his old understanding and opened his eyes to a new reality. The flesh and blood of Jesus, which he had despised in His followers, became the center of his life.

In the Gospel of John, the crowd struggles with the same scandal. Jesus has declared, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever.” The Jews quarrel among themselves: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus does not soften the teaching. He intensifies it: “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.” This is not a metaphor. This is the Eucharist, the real presence of the crucified and risen Lord. The flesh and blood that Saul encountered on the road to Damascus is the same flesh and blood we receive at this altar.

Pope Benedict XVI taught, “The Eucharist is not merely a meal; it is the presence of the Risen Lord who gives Himself to us.” St. Augustine, reflecting on the same mystery, said, “Believe, and you have eaten.” The crowds stumbled over these words. Saul, the persecutor, was transformed by the reality behind them.

For us today, the same choice confronts us. Do we receive the Eucharist as a mere symbol, or do we encounter in it the living flesh of the Risen Lord? Do we approach this altar with the cold logic of the crowd, or with the astonished faith of the one who fell to the ground and said, “Who are you, Lord?”

This Easter season, let us ask for the grace of Saul’s conversion. Let us allow the Risen Lord to confront us, to shatter our comfortable misunderstandings, and to open our eyes to the reality of His presence. For the flesh and blood we receive here is the food that endures to eternal life. And the One we receive is the Lord who makes persecutors into apostles, and sinners into saints. Amen.

May God bless you all!