21st Sunday of Ordinary times

For five weeks now our Gospel reading has been from the beautiful sixth chapter of St. John. The sixth chapter began with Jesus feeding a great crowd with just five loaves of bread and two fish. We hear in today’s Gospel that many of Jesus' disciples chose not to follow him after his teaching on the Eucharist, the bread of life, which was himself. The Gospel describes various reactions to Jesus’ words (teachings) on “eating his flesh and drinking his blood.” The response of many disciples is negative.  “This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it.” They wanted intellectual answers, answers they could understand. Their faith was too shallow. They did not trust Jesus. Yet, Jesus did not compromise or water down the difficulty of his teachings. Instead, Jesus addressed the twelve: “What about you? Do you want to go away too?” The Apostles were just as puzzled; they did not understand either. But because they loved Jesus, they believed, they accepted him without understanding. Peter says, “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe…” When we believe something we cannot understand or we cannot prove, when we believe it simply because someone we trust told us, we call that faith. This was the faith Peter showed us.

Just as Joshua is today’s first reading challenged God’s people to reaffirm their covenant relationship with Yahweh. “Decide today whom you will serve.” So, Jesus. The new Joshua, challenges us to decide today about living to receive His Body and Blood. Will we receive him in repentance, joy, and love? We cannot really understand how Jesus is present in the Eucharist. However, when we make our act of faith, we are bonded to the Lord in a loving, life-giving way. Recall an experience where you did not understand what was going on. You had some insight, but much more evaded you. How much did you accept or reject? How much did your relationship to the speaker affect your decision? St. Francis de Sales instructs his followers, “ To be who you are and be it well.”