The Paralympics is set to start this Wednesday. The athletes have been training hard. They have sacrificed and struggled and fallen and gotten back up like their able-bodied counterparts and yet, the coverage of this international event will pale by comparison. The assumption is simple – not as many people are interested in watching the Paralympics. What moments of grace, wonder, and triumph will we miss because of this preference for abled-bodied athleticism?
Human beings can become distracted by presumed norms, assumptions and expectations. The nuclear family is idealised to the point that people are pressured about being in relationships, getting married, and having children regardless of whether this is something they want to do. Health and ability are idealised to the point where disability is considered a burden on society. There are expectations people hold based on skin colour and perceived gender that can undermine people’s potential. And there’s the ways capitalism promotes a particular standard of beauty that has implications for people of all ages and stages.
Human beings can become distracted by norms, assumptions, and expectations allowing these to determine how we view, understand, and relate to the world. It can be hard to think outside the box and consider other possibilities, other meanings, other ways of seeing the world that could lead to profound gifts.
Jesus said: Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.
It is not hard to imagine the assumptions people may make when hearing this passage. Eat my flesh? Drink my blood? It is hard to think beyond the idea that eating implies taking a bite of something, chewing and swallowing. Drinking likewise involves a liquid going into the mouth and getting swallowed. Is Jesus actually saying that people are supposed to do that with his flesh and blood? Isn’t that cannibalism???? Based in these assumptions, it is easy to understand how some people would find this message offensive.
Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.
Human beings can be distracted by presumed norms, assumptions and expectations such that they fail to see beyond these. What possibilities arise when we try to think outside of the box about this passage? Might we remember that we have all come into this world through a womb in which we were attached through an umbilical cord and fed by the flesh and blood of the one who nurtured us? Might we recognise in an infant who is being breastfed, how one can drink and be nourished by the body of another?
Could this message serve as a metaphor? Flesh and blood representing the heart and soul, the fullness of Jesus as a human being. Eating and drinking representing the invitation to be nourished deeply, intimately by the fullness of gifts Jesus is offering. How might looking beyond a narrow, literal interpretation create space for an experience that is profound and transformative? In what other circumstances do we need to be intentionally open to looking beyond assumptions to find the wonder and grace God provides in all of Creation? How might that willingness to look outside the box help us to stay resolute when things seem hard? How might this openness lead us to intimately recognise:
‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’
Jesus has the words of eternal life. His life, death, and resurrection are examples of how love extends beyond norms, assumptions and expectations in ways that can transform the world. May we be open to looking beyond assumptions, embracing possibilities, and remaining steadfast in our faith in the God whose Words are life. This we pray as we sing: 73 One Bread, One Body