In the first residing today Peter rails against the people for having denied Jesus and handed him over to be crucified. While we probably would never directly and intentionally deny him, we can do it in indirect ways.
Our lives get so busy that we can easily forget who we are. We forget that our task all day every day is to show the face of Christ to others.
In the gospel today Jesus eats with his disciples, AFTER his resurrection. He is not a ghost or spirit. Even after the resurrection he remains, flesh and blood. Christianity is not a mere philosophy or spirituality. It is incarnational. It must be made manifest in the world.
During the course of the day when we allow being tired or frustrated or just busy to cause us to be less than caring to another person, or worse ignore them all together, we have in a small way denied Christ. We step away from being his body. These things may seem small and insignificant, and taken in isolation they are. But over time it can be the spiritual death of a thousand little cuts.
By a thousand little baby steps we look up and find that are further away from Jesus than we would ever want to be. Every word we speak, every action we make does one of two things. It either proclaims our relationship to Jesus or denies it. On this there is no middle.
St.John tells us unless we eat his flesh and drink his blood we do not have life in us. This graphic language not only tells us the reality of the Eucharist but reminds us of what we are called to be, the flesh and blood tangible manifestation of the presence of Jesus in the world.
