[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

It is the thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost. The title of today’s Bach cantata is “Wer weiß, wie nahe mir mein Ende?” (Who knows how near to me my end?)

Today’s Gospel reading is John 6:51-58, which continues last week’s theme of Jesus as the bread of life.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

The text of today’s piece is available here. It contains these words, which remind the listener of Christ’s admonition in the Gospel passage that those who drink his blood have eternal life:

Who knows how near my end is?
It is known to dear God alone,
whether my pilgrimage on the earth
might be short or longer.
Time runs out, death approaches,
And finally it comes down to this,
that they will meet each other.
Ah, how quickly and swiftly
can my death-struggle come upon me!
Who knows, whether today
my mouth might not speak its last words.
Therefore I pray all the time:
My God, I beseech through Christ’s blood,
make my end good!

Happy listening!

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]