From pastor’s desk on the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, year B
In the Gospel of John, we hear that many Jews followed Jesus, for they had heard what Jesus did in Cana—changing water into wine—and they could see another great miracle that the Teacher from Nazareth performed in the wilderness—the multiplication of the loaves of bread and fish. Jesus fed the thousands of hungry men, women, and children, who followed Him. It was a sign of God’s presence that resembled that of the feeding the Israelites in the desert for forty years. A Jew in Jesus’ times could clearly read this sign of God acting through Him. But there was more than an average Jew could expect, for Christ was pointing to Himself as the true bread from heaven:
I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.
John 6:51
Our Lord Jesus communicates this message several times in Chapter 6 of the Gospel of John alone. It seems that it is of extreme importance and our Lord wants to make sure so that His listeners might finally open their minds to the revelation of God’s Real Presence in Him. But instead, they start to complain and murmur, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” This sounds as if they almost want to say, “Oh Jesus, this is too much. Please tell us that you are saying this in a symbolic sense… You are not really saying to eat your flesh?! Are you?” To that our Lord reiterates the message one more time and “as a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.”
Our Blessed Lord posed a real challenge to His first disciples, for to follow Him required faith and a change in thinking. Unfortunately, many people were not able to do a leap of faith out of convenience or fear, for to believe in Jesus would also require a change of one’s life and certainly a change how one would practice his or her religion. The question that Jesus subsequently presented to His closer disciples is also addressed to us: “Do you also want to leave?”
We too are constantly challenged by our faith in Jesus and we do not understand many things that are presented to us in the creed or in the teaching of the Church. That applies also to how we view the Eucharist as well. Sadly, many Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. They think it is a mere symbol or a memorial in a worldly sense whereas it is not. Rather, the Eucharist is the continuation of Christ’s presence amongst us—Real Presence. As the Church teaches Jesus Christ is truly present in the Eucharist. So let us remember that whenever we receive communion we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. There are numerous Eucharistic miracles that confirm this truth (check out this website: www.miracolieucaristici.org). God really cares for us and want us to be saved so he allows those miracles to occur so that our faith may grow and our reverence and appreciation for the Eucharist may increase. Essentially, we must treat the Eucharist as we would treat the Lord Jesus standing in front of us.
While struggling with many dilemmas of our faith I hope that Simon Peter’s answer to Jesus’ question will become yours too:
Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.
John 6:69
I wish you all a blessed week. Fr. Janusz Mocarski, Pastor