Mama Mondays- Pay Attention

One of Charlotte Mason's "big three" habits was the habit of Attention. Many of her methods are geared towards helping children to work on this habit, which is a foundation for studies, physical safety and health, good relationships, and even for a rewarding spirituality.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, as I diligently work (and believe me, it's work!!) to train these kiddos to pay attention, I am totally amazed at how little I pay attention myself. This is something that clearly showed up over lent, as I made the decision to listen to my husband better as my lenten sacrifice. (Mock me if you will, but that man is hard to listen to sometimes. :D)
As I worked to LISTEN to him, and not assume that I knew what he wanted, not talk for him, and not talk him out of the room, I found that our relationship improved but also that my feelings for him improved-- I truly enjoyed him more and appreciated and even WANTED his insight more.

Same goes for my kiddos. You see, the first issue is that it's not that I have a problem with paying attention (my parents were pretty good about instilling that in me as well) it's that I am selective about what I'm going to pay attention to. I admit that from the beginning of this parenting experience, "children's babble" has not been high on that list. I am a thinker, and I like talking..... to other thinkers. One of the main concerns I had about homeschooling was that I thought I was going to go nuts teaching little children, even my beloved "own" children, colors, shapes, numbers, etc. I've always thought homeschooling them in high school would be infinitely more interesting than in the early years.... but then, thats the "me-centered" ideology I fight with all my might. Our decision to homeschool isn't about what's best for ME. It's about what's best for THEM. Either I embrace that or I don't. I did--- and now I love it. Even in the "early years.")

 I seem to be alone in my woe a lot though. It may be because many people did not grow up with the intellectual stimulus that my parents provided, so they are content to do things with their children that children love to do because it's what they always did. For example, many of us motivated stay-at-home-moms are perfectly content to sit with their kids and watch The Lion King and snack, or to sit outside and draw with sidewalk chalk and eat popsicles.

Me? You couldn't pay me enough to watch the Lion King more than once (I still haven't actually SEEN it) or to play play dough. I find those things utterly inane and boring. I was the same way as a child. There are pictures of me in fourth grade reading Abigail Adam's autobiography instead of "choose your own adventure" or "the Babysitter's club." My parents pushed us to hike farther, read longer, and think harder than most of the parents around us, who encouraged us to have fun and just.... stay out of the way.

It was tough as a kid, but became rewarding later when the "deeper questions in life" were of more importance than all the stuff most people get worked up over (TV shows getting cancelled, restaurants closing, etc.) This is why I love things like Facebook, where I can interact at an adult level with other people who want to talk about the things that interest me while the kids do things like run outside or watch The Lion King. The trouble is, many times, the kids WANT to do things with me. And what I want to do with THEM is not really on their age level. They can't keep up with my workout, they don't understand my bible study, and they need help to cook. They don't want to talk about marriage and parenting, the meaning of a certain scripture passage, or make homeschooling schedules. Or rather, they do, but when they do it's on their level and usually involves an unebelievable amount of excitement,  a big explanation and mess that just gives me a headache.

Homeschooling, in a very strange way, is a good cure for that problem because it allows me to draw them, little by little, into a higher plane of thinking--- we have a deeper purpose during school hours. But my ordinary life is very taxing, mentally and emotionally, because I've never been a "kid person." Not even when I was a kid. :D

Another thing that works is just getting over my desire to be around adults and talk about adult things. I am who I am today because people poured into me.... and if my kids are going to be anything, they will need exactly the same thing. Time. Attention. Dedication and genuine relationships with people, including adults and ESPECIALLY their parents. Clearly, for parents, attention is not an option, which is why it can be disheartening listening to other moms talk about how they stick their kids in daycare so they don't have to deal with them. You better believe that daycare worker will care less about your kid than you, and will pay less attention.... and will not want to go to the trouble of teaching YOUR kid to pay attention either. Daycare workers-- good ones--- will take their cues from the parents. And if the parents aren't making good habits a priority, they won't either.

So paying attention is important, but so is WHAT-- or rather WHO we are paying attention to. My kids matter. It isn't long, if you keep ignoring them, before they don't want to talk to you anymore. My heart and prayer is to cultivate that relationship with them as much as I can, from the very beginning, even if it means staying up late to talk about which Disney princess is nicer or where the tooth fairy might live.

Our society has created a bubble of inattention all around kids. Not having TV or playing video games makes that obvious to us watching from the outside....One needs only watch the speed and intensity with which modern cartoons shift or listen to the mundane and hyper lyrics and beats of kid- oriented music to see that we have completely abandoned necessities like calm, order, and discipline in favor of Fun! Fast! and Funky! Kids today play video games even as toddlers and go to bounce houses and movies once a week.  Parents "keep them busy" with kid-themed activities that amount to surrounding them with noise and mania at incredible speeds until they collapse or throw tantrums.
They are seldom STILL, attentive, and listening.

On the other hand, they are children, after all. They do spend the majority of their time screeching, yelping. wiggling, and babbling contentedly. We can't expect them to sit still all the time... I had a good reminder from Dr Ray Guerendi's "Discipline that lasts a lifetime" the other day that even major levels of energy in children are healthy and normal and we shouldn't micromanage them to the point of making them lose their verve for life. True, true.... a little quiet does them good, but they need to get out and live too.

I compromise (I like to think I'm a "middle ground" parent) by giving them a mandatory 1 1/2 hr quiet time/ nap each day, and also by requiring them to be quiet and listen at mass, during liturgy of the hours, and when I read them books. I also let them go completely bananas at least once an hour, give them tons of opportunities to work hard, and try to smile and / or laugh at almost all moments. TRY. I'll be honest...  Sometimes I frown or my eyes bug out and the vein in the middle of my forehead gets really, really big.

To teach them attention, I use Charlotte's principles. Short, varied lessons, making them work to perfection (and not just "good enough."), not rewarding them for effort but for achievement,  and training them to stay and keep observing things a little bit longer than they are inclined to (for example, during nature study, or during a handwriting lesson.) I also train them to look into my eyes and really listen for my directions so they can obey correctly and not just "halfway." This gets a little weird when my six year old says things to me like: "Mommy, LOOK IN MY EYES! I'm trying to tell you something." I'm hoping she will quit that soon.

I don't know if it's working, because I feel like I spend about nine hours a day *patiently* barking.... "Pay attention!" or "that's why paying attention is so important!" or "but what did I TELL you to do?" or even... "atten-SHUN!" or any variation of the along those lines. Come to think of it, that was one of the first things they told me in Basic Training..... attention to detail doesn't appear to be anyone's forté.

However, this morning, I watched my six year old sneak around the backyard at seven a.m. while I fumbled around looking for coffee. She stood very still (!) for periods of five minutes at a time, and just listened. All around her, this choir of birds was singing away and my little ornithologist was mentally taking it all in, her gaze darting around as she watched the flight patterns, listened for the flurry of feathers, a cheep or chirp, and followed the calls to branches, nests, and patches of grass where her winged friends were doing their thing. Eventually, her two year old sister joined her, and mimicked her naturalist technique.
It was awesome to watch, and I am quite sure that it showed that somehow, some way, the habit of attention was getting through, much to my joy and surprise.

I read somewhere recently that parents are facebooking and tweeting and ignoring their kids at a ridiculous rate, and that statistics are starting to show that it is having a detrimental effect on children. I'm not surprised-- as a non-cell phone haver, I admit I find it shocking how often people "check" their phones when we are engaged in conversation, dinner, etc.  People have forgotten how to be in the moment.
At the same time, there is a line to be drawn. I am very clear with my kids that at certain times during the day I am "otherwise occupied," whether it's to work, to take a five minute break on FB, or to read an article or finish a project. I expect them to give me that time because I wholly devote myself to them the rest of the time, and as I said, I'm a "middle of the road" kind of parent--- believing that they need equal doses of "entertaining themselves" and "motherly guidance." (My kids are young, so I tend to give them an extraordinary amount of what Charlotte Mason called "masterly inactivity" which will diminish much as they get older and require more of "my thoughts.")

The point of all this, I guess, is that attention is not a one-sided habit. Our kids pick up what we model, and nothing, after teaching them obedience, is as important is teaching them attention. Just as I model obedience for them by obeying my husband, the law, and the Church, I try to model attention for them by listening, focusing, staying on task, and following directions. The more I try, the more I realize how deficient I am in this habit, and the more I work at training myself along with them.

In what ways do you intentionally try to build the habit of attention into your children?

Using scripture to train our children

So, on Pinterest a while back, I came across this website: The Child Training Bible. It describes a method by which to organize child training verses using color coded flags and hi-lighters for parents to use in the raising of children. It was one of those things you just sat and stared at, wide-eyed, thoughts buzzing.

At the time, I simultaneously pinned it to my parenting boards and to my random hilarity boards because, let's face it, while there is something profoundly interesting and inspiring about it, for sure, I admit I also found it kind of .... crazy and neurotic as an idea. Look at all those tabs!! How would you HOLD this bible? Doesn't it just SCREAM: "pull me out" to any passing toddler? Where would you find the time to sit down and actually make one of these?? How practical could it actually be??

I'm not at all slamming the people who came up with this idea, I actually find it -- and them-- awesome. But I think there is a little re-thinking to be done here--- while it's very good and helpful, it's also kind of.... overkill. Maybe that's just me, as this bible seems to be getting very enthusiastic reviews. I admit my life is a little more hectic in some ways than other stay at home moms for whom the Child Training Bible may be a wonderful option.

On my end, though... I like things simple, and as a busy mom, I don't have time to brush my teeth, let alone to sit down with my kids for every infraction and pick through the Bible for lecturing material, nor do I have time to nitpick issues. I'm big on the "heart" and not the externals--- and at this stage in my parenting I usually find myself constantly turning to Charlotte Mason's "big three" issues (Obedience, attention, truthfulness) and much less frequently to particular issues.  

Now, if I'm going to be praying for one of my kids in depth that day about a particular issue, I might find a list of EVERY verse that deals with it helpful, but the reality is that in ordinary life I just need a handful of "go to" verses.

I have mentioned before that our family uses Charlotte Mason's methods in our homeschool, and Charlotte had a LOT to say about child training and good habits. Her habits training ideas can be broken down into five categories (mental habits, physical habits, moral habits,  religious habits, habits of propriety and decency.) So in my case, I can more easily use a go-to bible verse for each of the habits in this category (or better yet, for a category itself) than for every, single, specific situation my kids or I might encounter during their childhood. I also like that Charlotte focuses on something positive which encourages me as a parent-- changing bad habits into good ones, whereas the Child Training Bible is basically geared to look up MISbehavior (lying, stealing, fear, etc.) I understand why it's organized that way, but my kids-- and I-- tend to be more receptive to change when it is presented in a positive light.

Every Christian parent should be excited about a project that helps them quickly find bible verses with which to train their children. We all (hopefully) USE bible verses and have various systems for doing it, like making kids copy or memorize verses for problem areas, doing character training with bible verses in daily devotions, or simply having a list of verses for different situations we encounter and looking them up and reading them together after we correct or discipline our kids. 

And believe me, I'm ALL for using tabs and color coding to get us there-- I already do that to help me pray with my Bible. So I really, really do like the idea.... But I wasn't sure I could handle a life where I'd have to carefully carry a bible that looks like this around without rapidly losing what's left of my mind:

So anyways, I thought about it and realized that there really are just a handful of verses I NEED and USE regularly in my parenting (by regularly, I mean on a day-to-day, training-and-correcting basis way... not in a full-on warfare kind of way. Obviously, there are moments where you just really need the entire Bible, or a list a mile long.) Basing my categories mostly off of Charlotte Mason's habits, I came up with THIS.

Not overwhelming, not complicated, easy to use and carry. I likey.

Each tab is a subject I find myself harping on the kids about relatively often.

Each tab contains a MAIN verse at the top, and additional verses to use as needed.

A couple of them overlap the text and this annoys me.. I'll have to find a solution.

Like I said, we're ALL about keeping it simple here. :)

But some things are TOO important to let slide. ;)

If your kids are anything like mine, they will enjoy making their own tabs for their own bibles, too. Bonus!

So that's it.... my version of the "Child Training Bible," and the benefit to me is that my husband and I deal with many of these same habits (and sins!) in our own personal lives so having these makes it really easy to quickly look up something that relates to us, to our own parenting, to our relationship to each other, etc. I've been doing this for about a week now and I am already SO glad I took the (One hour, not year! Haha) it took me to make this, and I've actually used it-- which is great. So far the best part is that my kiddos actually LIKE it and find it interesting, so they remind me to use it if perchance I forget. Having just read Ray Guerendi's book "Discipline that Lasts a Lifetime," I am super excited about how easily this all fits in with that. Dr. Ray reminded me over and over that discipline was less talk and more action, and I think that applies not just to parenting but to our work, too. I noticed that by doing this instead of having endless passages to look up and talk about with the kids, they-- and I--- get more work done. We also spend waaaaay less time yakking about HOW to do what's right and way more time just doing it, which is my husband's theme for our house. "There's no need to be so complicated. Life is simple.... Just be good, and do good," he says. Can't argue with that!

Anyways, hope it helps somebody out there!

For those interested in doing this themselves, I can offer some suggestions. However, I don't want to give you a how-to because one of the most important things about doing this project , in my eyes, is that it needs to be something YOU will use. My needs are not your needs, so you may find some of my categories, or verses, inapplicable for your own family. Instead I would encourage you to sit down and make a small, manageable list of things you would like to instill in your kids and then your OWN favorite verses for each one.

By way of a guideline, here is a list of the habits Charlotte Mason specifically mentions, as organized in the wonderful book "Laying down the Rails: a Charlotte Mason Habits Handbook."

You might find it useful to include tabs for these particular habits or simply for each category, along with appropriate bible verses. 

Habits of Decency and Propriety
Cleanliness Courtesy Kindness Manners Modesty and Purity	Neatness Order Regularity Candor Courage	Diligence Fortitude Generosity Gentleness Meekness	Patience Respect Temperance Thrift
Mental Habits
Attention Imagining Meditation Memorizing	Mental Effort Observation Perfect Execution Reading for Instruction	Remembering Thinking Accuracy Concentration	Reflection Thoroughness
Moral Habits
Integrity Priorities Finishing	Use of Time Borrowed Property Obedience	Personal Initiative Reverence Self-Control	Sweet, Even Temper Truthfulness Usefulness
Physical Habits
Alertness to Seize Opportunities Fortitude Health Managing One’s Own Body Music Outdoor Life		Quick Perception of Senses Self-Control in Emergencies Self-Discipline in Habits Self-Restraint in Indulgences Training the Ear and Voice
Religious Habits
Regularity in Devotions Prayer	Reading the Bible Praise	Reverent Attitude Sunday-Keeping	Thanksgiving Thought of God

Charlotte Mason's motto for students was "I am, I can, I ought, I will." Another way to do this is simply to make a list of fifteen or so things you often come across and a good verse for each one. For example: Obedience Attention Truthfulness Modesty Purity Faith Proper Speech Kindness Charity Cleanliness Good study habits Proper Choice in Friends Self-control etc. As I said, every family (and child!) is different so I don't want to give you a cookie-cutter "how-to" here, but rather to help you brainstorm ideas that will work. I hope you enjoy doing this project as much as I did! I'm praying for you and your children. :)

Answering questions Christians have about the Passover Seder

As passover will soon be upon us, and Holy Week has officially begun, there are some questions every year about the orthodoxy of holding a seder meal in a Christian home. Some very conservative Catholic homes participate in seder meals with Jews or hold their own, and others absolutely reject and forbid the holding of seder meals, calling it a sin. Which is the correct position?

There are several theological layers to unpack here but I will try to be brief and simple. The purpose of the passover seder is the ritual "telling" (this is what the term "Haggadah," the name of the books from which the ritual is read during the seder, means) of the passover story. It is a ritual mentioned in the Torah, and of primary importance to the Jewish people then and now. Because of our shared salvation history, it is beneficial to Christians to attend and understand the passover, and thus to participate in the passover seder. Neverthless there are many questions from Christians each year as they consider adding additional layers of meaning to their holy week observances and discovering the seder meal.

1. Understanding the Old and New Law.

Before the Catholic Church was born on Pentecost, the people of God were under the Old Covenant, the law of Moses. Under the law of Moses, the observance of the Passover was a requirement, for which Judaism has developped a liturgical rite held in the home or the community. The Passover is NOT a salvific requirement, nor is it a liturgical rite, of the Church. It's observance today belongs to the Jews who have rejected Jesus Christ as the promised messiah. However, it belongs to our history as well, because "salvation is from the Jews." (John 4:22)
The person of Jesus Christ, our passover lamb, is in fact the requirement fulfilled (Matthew 5:17-18). Those of us who are familiar with salvation history and the Bible understand and recognize how perfectly Jesus' messiahship is visible in the study of the Old Covenant. Nevertheless, no act of obedience to the Old Law is salvific in and of itself for Christians-- Christians must follow Jesus, and only following Jesus are we saved. Many Christians participate in the Seder because it is "biblical," and yet miss the point that it is not their own Liturgical Rite to hold. Christians have accepted Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, as the Messiah, and are thus given the Holy Eucharist and the sacrament of Holy Orders (the priesthood), which Jesus Himself instituted at the Last Supper (which scholars believe was a Passover seder) and THAT is our "salvific requirement"-- the biblical participation in the mass is a real participation in the life and body of Christ. For Christians, although it is profound and meaninful, the observation of the passover ritual is only a shadow of this reality. (Colossians 2:17)

Therefore, Christians who find meaning in the passover ritual will find endless meaning in the Holy Mass, and it is THERE that the Church has its own liturgical rite. Seder meals, then, according to the Bishops, should never be organized in such a way as to imitate or overshadow the importance of our participation in the mass.

Different Catholics have different ways of ensuring that-- some do not hold passover meals at all, which is fine, and others hold them but make it very clear that what they are doing is valuable but very different from the importance of participation in the Christian Meal, in the same way that many Catholics celebrate and observe Hannukah, for example, while recognizing that it's liturgical value in the year does not overshadow the importance of recognizing and celebrating and remembering the birth of Our Lord.

Because the Passover Seder belongs to the Jewish liturgy, our Bishops have encouraged us, both out of senstivity to our Jewish friends and out of the need for CLEAR catechesis, not to alter or change the seder in any way from the traditional Jewish manner of holding it if we are holding it in public places or in eceumenical settings. Many Christians (mostly protestants) offer  "Messianic Seders." This is absolutely outrageous to Jews and should be avoided at all costs.

Catholics are encouraged by the Bishops to participate in an AUTHENTIC Jewish Seder, which, if they have taken their responsibility to learn the faith will catechize and teach them all they need to know about the Old Covenant, Salvation history, and the reason Jesus is the Messiah without their needing to alter or change the words or actions, much in the same way that attendance at a Jewish synagogue for Shabbat services will catechize them (presuming they have done the preliminary work of understanding the role of Judaism within salvation history)  without their needing to alter or change the liturgy of the Jews.

Here is what the Bishops have said:

"God's Mercy Endures Forever: Guidelines on the Presentation of Jews and Judaism in Catholic Preaching" by the USCCB's Bishop's Committee on the Liturgy:

28. It is becoming familiar in many parishes and Catholic homes to participate in a Passover Seder during Holy Week. This practice can have educational and spiritual value. It is wrong, however, to "baptize" the Seder by ending it with New Testament readings about the Last Supper or, worse, turn it into a prologue to the Eucharist. Such mergings distort both traditions. The following advice should prove useful:
When Christians celebrate this sacred feast among themselves, the rites of the haggadah for the seder should be respected in all their integrity. The seder . . . should be celebrated in a dignified manner and with sensitivity to those to whom the seder truly belongs. The primary reason why Christians may celebrate the festival of Passover should be to acknowledge common roots in the history of salvation. Any sense of "restaging" the Last Supper of the Lord Jesus should be avoided .... The rites of the Triduum are the [Church's] annual memorial of the events of Jesus' dying and rising (Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy Newsletter, March 1980, p. 12).

2. Practical guidelines for those interested in holding a seder meal.

First, consider your audience. A Parish hosting a seder meal would be following the Bishops' guidelines better, for example,  by hosting a joint Jewish/Catholic seder meal according to the Jewish tradition.
On the other hand, it would benefit everyone to also provide a bible study at some point around the meal (not the same day, or during) to explain the passover with a Christian worldview.
A seder held for a group, club, or bible study, likewise, would be better off holding a traditional Jewish seder and if possible, asking for help from a Jewish teacher in the preparation and delivery.
A family, of course, or groups of families, would be fine observing it either way, have much more freedom to explain or catechize DURING the event... a freedom which would be clearly out of place in a public event.
It is also helpful to think about how to engage all those present. A seder meal that includes many children will naturally need more "involvement" and games than one primarily consisting of adults, who can sit through long readings and prayerful considerations.

Second, consider the purpose of the passover. Passover seders are held on certain days and according to the Jewish calendar, in a certain order and within a certain framework.  It is very meaningful, then, to maintain these dates and methods.
Any attempt to alter the ritual renders it devoid of the full meaning it holds FOR the Jews... and thus handicaps a Christian who wants to understand more deeply the roots of his/her own faith.While there is a lot of freedom there and you will want to read many different Haggadahs to find the one that "fits" your particular needs, it is important to maintain a sensitivity to the "correct" way of handling each part of the telling.

And lastly, the passover is only one part of many feasts observed by the people of the Old Covenant. If you consider participation in the passover, please also consider participation in the other feasts and explore the fullness of our salvation history. But if you do so, please spend an equal amount of time studying the SACRAMENTS of the Church, which are defined as "efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us, "and the reasons why Christ instituted each one. In the sacraments are the fruit of the Jewish feasts for God's people IN Christ. We see elements of each feast and sabbath in each one, and the more we study them, the more fully we understand and live our Christian faith. It would be a terrible tragedy for a Christian to observe the passover, and yet skip mass each week. Likewise, it would be a terrible tragedy for a Christian to observe Hannukah and skip Christmas, to observe Shabbat and skip the Lord's Day, etc. And yet we see this more and more as many protestant Christians, seeking deeper meaning, more truth, and liturgy which their souls crave leave the protestant churches to join messianic congregations in which a somewhat artificial (in that it is not accepted by Jews)  form of Judaism is taught. If you are a Catholic Christian today, you are able and encouraged to participate FULLY in salvation--- by participating in the sacraments of grace. This is a great treasure and storehouse of grace for you and your family. I encourage you to study, love, and participate in the Jewish liturgical year, but I also remind you that the Church year exists for your Christian soul, and exhort you not to neglect it.

3. Understanding the connections and distinguishing  the differences between the Passover Meal and the Mass:

The following is a transcript of a talk by my favorite Bible Scholar, Scott Hahn that should help you to understand the connection between the passover and the lamb's supper: 

The Institution of the Eucharist in Scripture

The Catholic Church claims that Christ is really present in the Eucharist, that the sacrifice of calvary is repeated at every Mass, and that he gives Himself to us in Holy Communion as food unto eternal life.

With this in mind, let's look at Scripture. Luke 22, verse 15, our Lord says, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you." So we are assured that the Last Supper in the Upper Room was a Passover meal. In Mark 14, verses 22 through 26, we hear the words of institution, "And as they were eating He took bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them and said, 'Take, this is my body.' And He took a cup and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them and they drank all of it and He said to them, 'This is my blood of the New Covenant which is poured out for many. Truly I say to you, I shall not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.'"

You could also say it this way: that if the Passover isn't finished until Calvary, I would suggest that Calvary is really begun in the Upper Room with the Eucharist. When does Jesus' sacrifice really begin? Well, He insists on the fact that His life is not being taken away from Him. He is laying it down. Now in the trial, in the passion, it's being taken away; but in the Upper Room, prior to all of that, Jesus lays it down. He says, "This is my body. This cup is the blood of the New Covenant."

What happens when you differentiate and separate body and blood? You signify death. When your body and your blood are separated, death begins. That's obvious, I think. So Jesus is symbolically and actually beginning the sacrifice. St. Augustine has said that Our Lord held himself in his own hands and commenced the sacrifice of the New Covenant Passover as He was transforming the old. Calvary really began in the Old Testament Passover being celebrated in the Upper Room, when the Eucharist was instituted and the Passover Eucharist of the New Covenant really isn't over until Calvary, when He says, "It is finished."

No wonder St. Paul says in 1st Corinthians 5, "Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us." Therefore, what? Therefore we don't have any more sacrificial offerings or ceremonies or feasts and so on to celebrate because all those ceremonies are outdated and done with? No. He says, "Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed; therefore, let us keep the feast." And he goes on to talk about how we take out the leaven of insincerity and we have this unleavened bread. What's he talking about? Christ, our Passover has been sacrificed; therefore, we've got to achieve the whole goal of that sacrifice, the second half is communion where we eat the lamb.

Now you can't eat a lamb cookie in Egypt. If you didn't like lamb, you couldn't have your wife make lamb bread, little biscuits in the shape of a lamb and say, "God, you understand, we just can't stand the stuff." No, you do that, your firstborn would die. You had to eat the lamb. Jesus Christ has said to us, "My flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life."

Let's turn to John 6 and see the context in which he says that. John 6, verse 4 tells us, "Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews was at hand." So everything that transpires within John 6 is within the context of the Passover. Jesus is talking to them now. At the time of the Passover, after multiplying these loaves, ending up filling twelve baskets with the fragments from the five barley loaves, He uses that as his point of departure for one of the most important sermons that He ever preaches and also one of the most disastrous from a human perspective.

He goes on talking about this bread and He goes on talking about Moses in context with that bread. For instance, in verse 32, "Jesus then said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. My Father gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.' They said to him, 'Lord, give us this bread always.'" Welfare state! "Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger and he who believes in me shall not thirst.'" And He goes on talking about this some more. The Jews would then murmur at him in verse 41 because He said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven."

They're thinking, "What is He talking about? This guy is Joseph's son. How does He say, 'I've come down from heaven?'" They only look at it from a human perspective. They don't see that He's the divine Son of God. Verse 47, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven.'"

How often did they eat the manna? Every day. How often do we receive the Bread of Life? Every day. This is not a once for all sacrifice, like many anti-Catholics allege in the sense that Christ is sacrificed and now there's nothing more to be done. Jesus Christ is sacrificed as priest and as victim, as lamb and as firstborn son and as the Bread of Life, he gives himself to us as well as the unleavened bread of the Passover meal, which commenced, of course, the whole feast of unleavened bread the week after the Passover celebration. Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life, the unleavened bread of God which came down from heaven which the Israelites received every day, the manna of the New Covenant.

Christ through the Holy Spirit makes himself available as the Lamb of God to be consumed continuously. That's the whole point of the Resurrection, incidentally. The Holy Spirit raises up that body and glorifies it so supernaturally that body and blood which is glorified may be internationally distributed through the elders and priests of the Church so that all of God's children can be bound back to the Father in the New Covenant sacrifice of Christ. He didn't die again. He's not bleeding and he's not suffering. He's reigning in glory and giving us his own flesh and blood.

Where do you get that? From the Old Testament -- the manna, the Passover, the sacrifice as it's described on Calvary as it's initiated in the Upper Room and as he states right here in verse 51. "If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh." Jews stop, wait a second. Hold the phone. "John, what do you mean 'my flesh?'" Verse 52, "The Jews then disputed among themselves saying, 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?'" Cannibalism, paganism, barbarism, sin in the highest degree.

So did Jesus say to them, "I didn't mean it, guys. I was just kind of, you know, using hyperbole or metaphor." No. He actually intensifies the scandal. He actually raises the obstacle even higher. "He said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood,' which Leviticus condemns, the drinking of blood, 'unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.'"

He said that four times in four different ways.

In verse 60, "Many of His disciples when they heard it said, 'This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it?'" That is an understatement. "Jesus, however, knowing in Himself that His disciples murmured at it" (the disciples, the followers, the spiritual proteges, not just the crowd now, the disciples themselves are taking offense at this and murmuring and grumbling), "said to them, 'Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the son of man ascending to where He was before? It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.'"

What words? That you've got to eat my flesh and drink my blood, those words.

In 63 we discover why Christ's flesh and blood will be so powerful and animating for supernatural life. Verse 66, "After this, many of His disciples drew back...." We get the impression that the vast majority of them said, "This is just too much." "...and no longer went about with him. And Jesus turned to the twelve;" he didn't apologize. He didn't say, "Now that we're down to twelve, I'll tell you what I really meant." He didn't say that at all. In fact he is perfectly willing for this obstacle to remain scandalous even to the twelve. "Do you also wish to go away?" But "Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go?'" Almost implying we would leave if there was somebody else that we could trust more than you because what you said is rather baffling. But he says, "To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God."

So we have reason to believe that this sacrifice of the New Covenant Passover begun in the Upper Room and consummated on Calvary and ultimately as 1st Corinthians 5 suggests continued and celebrated as a climactic communion on the altars of the Church around the world when we receive the Eucharist in Communion. All of this is right from the Bible but you've got to know your Bible. You've got to know John. You've got to know Matthew, Mark and Luke. You've got to know Exodus. You've got to know the Psalms. You've got to know Corinthians and you also have to know Revelation.

Abridged from Scott Hahn's audio and video tape presentation,
"Eucharist: Holy Meal" as it appears in the "Catholic Adult Education
on Video Program" with Scott and Kimberly Hahn.

Full text available in our library.
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Electronic text (c) Copyright EWTN 1996. All rights reserved.