Holy Thursday: The Eucharist Makes Us Like Christ

“And whilst they were at supper, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke: and gave to his disciples, and said: Take ye, and eat. This is my body. And taking the chalice, he gave thanks, and gave to them, saying: Drink ye all of this. For this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins.” —Matt. 26:26-28

the Greek word (that is, the original word used by St. John) in John 6:54 does mean “eat,” but that doesn’t capture the full meaning. The word used here, φαγητε (phagaete—a form of ephagon), is from the aorist (past tense) stem of the verb εσθιω (esthio), which, besides “eat,” means to “devour.” And if that weren’t physical enough for you, in John 6:55 Jesus uses an almost hyper-visceral word, τρώγων (trogon), from τρώγω (trogo), which means quite literally to “gnaw,” “chew,” or “crunch.” In later Greek (I am not certain exactly when), τρώγω was also used as the present tense of εφαγον (ephagon), so the two words are connected anyway.

Thus, more accurately, John 6:54-55 says, “Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you devour the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. The one gnawing on [or chewing] my flesh, and drinking my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.”

Leonardo da Vinci using the same model for both Jesus and Judas in the Last Supper without realizing it shows that every man is able to be corrupted, and willbe corrupted, unless he makes God the center of his life. But Jesus can save anyone, even a criminal or traitor, if only he asks for forgiveness. And just as that man went from being an image of Jesus to an image of Judas, just so every one of us can go from being an image of sin to being the image of Christ, through humility, virtue, and union with Christ in the Eucharist.