Food, Glorious Food!

November 9th, 2009 by Mark Shea Print This Article Print This Article ·

John 4:34

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.”

It is a curious fact that while moderns identify sex as the location of Christian virtue and sin, Scripture tends to locate it in the stomach.  The fall happens, not when Adam and Eve obey the divine command to be fruitful and multiply, but when they disobey the divine command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Likewise, salvation is given us through a ritual meal (“Take, eat: this is my body”) that is more than just a ritual, but the highest form of communion between God and man that is possible in this life.  So Jesus is about more than mere figures of speech in today’s verse.  God’s will was indeed his food and Jesus, the bread of life and the will of God for us, has made himself our food in the holy Eucharist.  Today, receive that bread, that will, that life into yourself in all his fullness.

Mark Shea is Senior Content Editor for Catholic Exchange and a weekly columnist for the National Catholic Register. You may visit his website at www.mark-shea.com check out his blog, Catholic and Enjoying It!, or purchase his books and tapes here.

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