Politics of Eucharist

Today's readings: 2 Kings 4, 42-44; Ephesians 4, 1-6; John 6, 1-15.

It was often difficult for Jesus to be accepted in his hometown. In today's Gospel from John, Jesus is acclaimed as a prophet but for the wrong reasons.

Jesus did not feed the people to work a miracle but to give a sign. The focus of today's reading is not the multiplication of bread. There is a sign that needs to be discerned on a much deeper level.

But we still have illusions about Christianity, completely missing the real implications of belief. Many seem to forget that Jesus' kingdom is not of this world. We are past the idea of a confessional state. Christendom is over. The separation between Church and State is here to stay. Yet from time to time the dream of a medieval Christian society returns.

The crowd seeking to take Jesus by force and make him king was only driven by the instinct of power.

But Jesus, in the face of this temptation, escapes to the hills alone. Jesus invites us not to enter the rut of the world's mentality.

The tragedy of Christianity in all this is that for many Christians, the meaning of the Eucharist is only for internal consumption - a temple or tabernacle presence with no link at all to the world and the lives of people.

How can we call the presence 'real' if it seems to have no connection with reality? We may still be preaching a God seemingly present in our churches but disconnected from the tide of history, but that God is dead.

Neo-liberal global capitalism has entered a period of crisis and has drastically affected the livelihoods of people across the world, aggressively promoting policies that seek to end poverty by increasing inequality.

A group of Spanish jesuits from a 'Christianity and Justice Foundation' have lately revisited the 'Five Wounds of the Church' and considered the first wound: that of "forgetting the importance of the poor".

They write: "The current situation in our world with regard to the numerous poor and starving people and the select few that have outlandish fortunes, far from being a natural accident, is a situation that goes radically against the will of God".

The poor, rather than being a given, are a product of the ways society is organised. We need to come to terms with what causes poverty in our societies. "I implore you to lead a life worthy of your vocation," writes St Paul to the Ephesians.

It is more than clear that moral action in response to evil and to a dysfunctional society has political overtones, but from the Christian standpoint we fail to see the Eucharist as pertaining more to the realm of politics than that of devotion. The Gospel is not politics but has serious political implications.

The multiplication of loaves in today's Gospel is similar to the Last Supper when Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and gave it to all present. The true Eucharist is that celebrated on the altar of the entire world. The entire planet is a single room where the affluent sit side by side with the starving. And in our celebrations, we continue to focus on petty daily sins, losing sight of the structural sins that disfigure humanity and hinder the authentic development of every person.

The above-mentioned document continues: "Going beyond the perceived blindness and deafness to reality, the most important thing is that the Church is losing credibility, and its outward appearance lacks the evangelical transparency and internal authority that should direct people's attention to the words and actions of our Lord".