Jesus said in yesterday’s gospel that, “unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him ….. the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.” Jn 6: 52-58
Today’s gospel continues to explain the context in which Christ said these words.
Many of the disciples who listened to Christ’s words said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” And, from the surface of things it was difficult to understand. Whoever eats my flesh … and drinks my blood … and feeds on me … these words sound as if Jesus is talking about cannibalism.
Jesus knew the effect his words had upon them, so he asked them, “Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life … For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.”
Jesus spoke of a spiritual reality, not an earthly reality, and they took it the wrong way. On the surface of things, who could blame them? Cannibalism is disgusting and revolting. Some of Christ’s disciples were living on the surface of life though, and they just could not understand the deeper spiritual realities. This is what separates the boys from the men, so to speak. To be a true disciple of Christ requires a mature faith, which enables you to understand that you do not personally know everything. There are things that you are ignorant of, that are never the less the truth. There are many mysteries to our existence that mankind does not understand, but most especially, what lies behind the veil of death.
So many people in our modern culture believes that the truth, is whatever they decide it is. They can not admit their own ignorance, or their own lack of understanding, but decide for themselves what is the truth. Remember Pilate’s question during Jesus’s trial? He asked Jesus, “what is truth?” Pilate himself wondered if there really is such a thing as truth, or is everything subjective to our own wants and desires?
When Jesus said in today’s gospel that “no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father”, that is because of truth. We either hear the voice of truth in Christ’s words, or we don’t. The birth of the Spirit is when we do come to recognize the truth of God’s existence. To know and love God first, is to realize that He is real, even without proof. You know in your heart that He is real. Love for God is only known in the heart, because our minds can not comprehend the complexity of God’s existence. We may not understand everything there is to know about God, but in our hearts we know He is real. It is the same way with Jesus Christ, His son. If we can know, love and accept God without completely understanding Him, we can also do so with His son.
Jesus “separated the men from the boys” by telling his disciples a spiritual reality about himself that would have to be accepted in faith, without understanding it. Those who could not accept what he said in faith, left. The ones who remained behind would be his Apostles. When Jesus asked them, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered him, “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.” Is it any wonder Jesus founded his entire church on Peter? He was a bedrock of faith in him.
Today, let us work toward realizing that we do not know all there is to know about life, about ourselves, or other people either. We can not always judge the truth for ourselves correctly, and most especially when it comes to other people. Like Jesus, there are much deeper realities to other people’s lives than what we see on the surface of things. How can we make an accurate judgement about them, without having all the facts about their lives? We all need to work a little harder on not judging things that we know nothing about.
Daily Mass Readings:
Acts 9: 31-42 / Psalm 116: 12-17 / John 6: 60-69
