Eating and drinking is a fundamental part of human life. We do it every day. I personally enjoy eating very much, and can easily give most of my day to thinking of my next meal. We want to eat to be full and satisfied to be healthy, and also for the delight of the experience itself and the taste. 

Jesus tells us that his flesh and blood are “real food” and “real drink”. And I’ve been musing on what he means by this. He could be saying that his body and blood, which we eat in the Communion, is not merely a sign, but is in fact real food, like a sandwich or an apple. From this perspective, he is trying to raise it from the level of mere symbolic action to the level of reality that our lunch has. 

The other possibility is that Jesus is saying that all the other food we eat is unreal in some sense, and that the real food is his Body. It’s like all other food is a suggestion of the true nourishment we will find and the true flavour we will taste when we are fed by his Body. Other food is only a shadow of the reality found in Jesus.

The truth in all this is that every desire which we seek to satisfy in earthly food and drink, are never satisfied in that food. We are nourished but it only lasts so long, and we must eat again. It tastes delicious, but the delight is fleeting. Jesus’ body and blood are real food because it is truly satisfying, nourishing, delightful, and it is the truth to which all our desires point. St Augustine said, “We are restless until we rest in you.” I think we could also say, “We are hungry, until we feast on you.”