John 6:66

After many many weeks of hearing in the Gospel of John about Jesus being the "bread of life" we get to the crux of it: the decision point. Jesus is saying something that he knows is hard to understand, hard to believe: that "unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you shall not have life within you."

He just fed 5000 men and untold numbers of women and children with 5 loaves and 2 fish. Then, right after that, he walked on water. Over the course of about 24 hours, he's demonstrated powerfully that he can do amazing things that are hard to understand and hard to believe. Yet when he said, "my flesh is true food" and "my blood is true drink," it proved too much for many of his followers.

Probably the roughest (and most ominously numbered) verse in all scripture follows: John 6:66.

"As a result of this, many [of] his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him."

But there are some who stayed.

They didn't stay because it was easy to understand, or because it was easy to belive. Peter intones my favorite words (that are not spoken by Jesus) in all of the Gospels:

"Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life." John 6:68

It has not always been true that I believed and followed the teachings of the Church because they were easy to understand or believe. Sometimes I just had to follow because there was simply no better alternative. I echoed Peter in my heart as I prayed to God, "Lord, to my human wisdom this doesn't make sense, but without you, nothing makes sense, so I choose to follow you anyway."

As time has gone on, clarity and a deepening of my understanding of the gift of the Eucharist and many of the more difficult to understand teachings of the Church has found its way into my heart. Peter's faith-filled response has been my cry and my safeguard when the doubts and darkness threaten to overcome my belief or to tempt me to follow my own conceptions of what Jesus should have said or meant.

I pray for all who struggle with this belief in the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. It may not be an easy teaching to understand, but it is HIS teaching, and he continues each day to prove himself trustworthy. Remain with him, even as you struggle. When you are tempted to return to your former way of life, let Peter's cry be your protection.

"Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life." John 6:68