John 6
When we buy produce or flowers, no one chooses deformed ones. People will give me a strange look if I ask them why they choose well-formed vegetables and flowers. It seems instinctive for us to choose things in this way. We want things that are genuine rather than fake. We want things that are beneficial rather than harmful. We want things that are beautiful rather than deformed. And these true, good, and beautiful things are all connected. Beautifully well-formed vegetables and flowers demonstrate the perfections of their species. And these perfections manifest they are well-nourished and have nutritious elements in them. These are what we want for eating because they are good for our health. This is not too hard to understand. And whether understanding or not, we practice it every day.
However, we can still ask why we want truth, good, and beauty. It is because we all want perfections. This implies we are not perfect. We have perfections to some degrees but not to their completion. It is undeniable we tend to move toward the completion of perfections. If someone denies this, it’s a sign of degeneration, destruction, perversion, and annihilation. We are born to look for truth, good, and beauty.
This is why the man has been searching for God since the time of old. The man wants to join the source of all perfections. Beyond human imperfections and failures, and above sufferings and death, the man desires to rise to perfections.
When Christ came on earth, he showed the man truth, good, and beauty with his own life and examples. He was not merely another righteous and charitable man. He completed truth, good, and beauty by his resurrection. True life, the life that never ends was shown in his resurrection. His disciples witnessed the perfect form of life with the incorruptible body. And Christ invited his disciples to share his life.
The body and blood we receive at the Eucharistic celebration are how we share the perfection of life. This is how we prepare ourselves for the life of which Christ promised to us - life eternal.
